Apocalypse Now
by The Silent Scream
Summary: A former significant other of Buffy returns to Sunnydale, acting as the bearer of bad news as he warns the gang of an oncoming apocalypse... again. This time though, things might get personal, with a member of the gang as possible horseman... Willow/OC
1. Chapter 1

Author's Note: Yup… here we go with yet another fic. I hope you'll enjoy it, it was one of the few which weren't easy to write, but I hope I did a decent job, anyway :)

Disclaimer: All characters from the Buffyverse are not mine (of course not), but property of Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, lalala, you know the drill. ;)

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><p><span>Apocalypse Now<span>

Even though Willow usually loved going to college, loved learning new stuff and, as she had to admit, sometimes also loved it to show off her knowledge when the professor asked a particularly difficult question only she knew the answer to, there also were days when she was annoyed and exhausted when she came home; those days happened rarely, but when they did, they always seemed to drain her so much that she felt like dropping down on the couch and sleeping for hours the moment she left campus.

This was exactly how she also felt that evening, as she made her way out of the elevator and to the door of the apartment she shared with her girlfriend; a hearty yawn escaped her while she dug out her keys, then unlocked the door and entered, smiling weakly to herself despite her tiredness when the sound of heavy metal music coming from the living room reached her ears, making it clear to her that her loved one was at home, as well.

Still eager to get on the couch and rest at least a bit before she'd have to tackle the paper she had to finish for one of her classes, the redhead stepped out of her shoes, then took off her jacket; with another yawn, she made her way into the living room, finding Pat lounging on the couch there, her feet propped up on the living room table, a cigarette in her mouth and a book in her hands. Upon hearing the witch enter, she looked up from said book, smiling when her gaze fell on her; quickly removing her feet from the table, she got up and, with two long steps, moved to stand in front of her girlfriend, thankfully thinking of removing the cigarette from her mouth before she bent down to kiss her hello.

"You're late", she then said matter-of-factly, "but not so late that you would have worried me. Some other student kept you from going?"

"Nope", Willow sighed while she made her way to the couch and unceremoniously let herself fall down on it, "no student, the professor. You know, the one I told you about, the guy who keeps looking at me when he talks of how that one paper I still have to finish might be published in some scientific magazine."

"Why doesn't he outright say that it'll be yours?" Pat smirked in reply, sitting down next to her and making her smile by pulling her feet up into her lap and starting a foot rub.

"Because it's not even done yet", the redhead replied after enjoying this for a few moments, "who knows if it'll be good enough? It might suck."

"Oh please", the demon snorted in reply, to the obvious amusement of her girlfriend, "you couldn't write something which sucked even if you tried. Bet it'll end up in that magazine."

"That'd be great, of course", Willow smiled, flinching when the taller woman's skilled fingers found an especially tense muscle and started working on it, "but, well, as I said, first I have to finish it. Actually, I should be working on it right now, but seeing that my feet are in your lap…"

"First, I'll finish that foot rub", Pat gave back in a strict tone, one Willow knew well by now and one which meant that she wouldn't accept any discussion about this, "then, you'll eat something – there's dinner waiting in the fridge – and then you can start working on that paper."

"As you command", the redhead giggled in reply, making her girlfriend smirk; a few minutes later, the foot rub was done, and she carefully removed Willow's feet from her lap, telling her to stay where she was before she got up and left for the kitchen. Sitting up on the couch, the witch made herself comfortable while she waited for her girlfriend to come back, momentarily smiling to herself as she enjoyed this moment of domestic normality; living in Sunnydale, dating a demon and being best friends with the Slayer made such opportunities rare, and she was determined to rejoice in it as long as possible.

"Did you make that dinner you're heating up for me right now?" she called into the general direction of the kitchen after thinking about domestic stuff, especially cooking skills and her loved one's lack of those, for a while; a throaty chuckle came in reply, followed by the words she had been hoping to hear when she had asked her question. "Nope, it's take-out. I don't wanna poison you!"

"Good to hear", the redhead giggled, making herself more comfortable on the couch while she waited for Pat to join her; it didn't take long until the audible beeping of the microwave came from the kitchen, followed by the footsteps of the taller woman shortly afterwards as she returned to the living room, carrying cutlery and a plate loaded with steaming hot food.

"Oh wow", Willow said at the sight, sitting up and looking at the size of the portion with widening eyes, "did I look that starved when I came home?"

"Yup", the demon let her know helpfully, putting the plate and cutlery down in front of her, then sitting down next to her, "and by now, I know the schedule of both Buffy and you well enough to also know that today, you didn't share many classes, which means that you didn't have lunch together and so, you probably forgot to eat and just studied through the lunch break. Am I right?"

"Kinda", the witch admitted, having the grace to blush; Pat just gave her a triumphant smirk, then leaned back into the couch while the redhead picked up the fork and started to eat, letting out a happy sigh after the first bite.

"This is delicious", she then told her girlfriend, "thanks… I think I only realized right now how hungry I've already been."

"If it wasn't for Buffy and me, you'd just die of starvation", Pat smirked in reply, making the redhead blush again; deciding not to comment on this one, Willow focused on her food again instead, quickly finishing it while her girlfriend picked up the book again she had been reading before the witch had come home, both of them enjoying the calm time, knowing that in a town like Sunnydale, such times never lasted long.

* * *

><p>Two hours later, the room still was mostly quiet, the only sounds being the noise of typing on laptop keys and the occasional soft rustle of paper; then, Willow broke the silence by letting out a heavy sigh, leaning back into the couch as she kept looking at the laptop screen, now with a satisfied expression on her face.<p>

"I think I'm done", she then told her girlfriend, prompting her to look up from her book and smile at her; briefly, she smiled back, then put on the cutest puppy dog look she could manage, sounding as cute as she was looking when she spoke on. "Would you mind reading through it? I know you don't like reading stuff on computer screens, but I've been staring at this for so long, I'm afraid I've become blind to the most obvious typos and stuff…"

"Sure", the demon shrugged in reply, causing Willow's smile to widen; quickly, she moved aside on the couch so the place in front of the laptop was free, giving the demon a thankful look when she moved to sit next to her and started reading the paper. To the redhead's concern, it didn't take long until her good eye started to water, as it always did when she was staring at a computer screen for too long ever since she had lost the other one; bravely, she ignored it the best she could do, only wiping at it from time to time until she had finished reading through the paper, with the occasional pressing of a few buttons on the keyboard to correct the minor typos she had found.

"I think I found them all", she stated once she had gotten done, turning away from the laptop to look at the redhead and wiping at her tearing eye again, "and it's really good, congrats. That'll surely end up in that magazine."

"That'd be great", Willow smiled, her smile fading away though again moments later as once more, her concern took over again. "Your eye's still all runny though. Want me to get you the eye drops?"

"No, thanks", the demon grimaced, not all too fond of those drops, "it's getting better already… So when will you present that paper to your professor? Just so I know when to buy champagne."

"What a way to change the topic", the witch smirked, giggling when in reply, her girlfriend at lead had the decency to look a bit ashamed; then, she shrugged, checking her watch for the date before she answered the question.

"In two days", she then stated, "which is good, because then I'll have time to read over it again tomorrow. Not that I don't trust your typo-finding-skills, but, well…"

"Better to be safe than sorry", the demon shrugged, clearly taking no offense; then, she checked her watch as well, squinting at it a bit since her good eye was still rather teary, looking up at the redhead again once she had been able to figure out how late it was.

"Well, I promised Buffy I'd go on patrol with her tonight", she let her girlfriend now, "wanna tag along?"

"Sure", Willow agreed after a moment, "it's been a while since I did that, as Buffy commented not all too long ago."

"How subtle of her", Pat smirked, getting up from her seat; nodding and giggling, Willow did the same, following her girlfriend into the bedroom and watching how the taller woman opened the chest next to her side of the bed there, looking at the collection of weapons inside it for a moment before she chose a sword, weighing it critically and nodding to herself.

"No axe today?" Willow asked while the demon removed two stakes from the chest, throwing one of them to her, the redhead catching it easily; apparently satisfied with her choice of weapons, Pat then snapped the chest shut again and straightened up, smirking while she looked at the sword.

"I can hide that easier than the axe", she then explained, "and it's still early enough for people to wander around, so…"

"Good point", the redhead had to concede, leaving the bedroom again with her girlfriend right behind her; together, they made their way into the small anteroom, putting on their shoes and coats there, the demon expertly hiding the sword beneath the long flaps of her coat and putting the stake into one of the pockets, Willow concealing hers by doing the same.

"I wonder if there'll be much to slay tonight", she then stated while they left the apartment together and headed to the elevator. "How has it been the last few nights?"

"Normal, I guess", Pat shrugged, "several vamps and random demons, which is good I suppose, since usually, calm times meant much more less calm times after a while."

"You're right about that", Willow agreed, grimacing as she thought of the last few times the vampires had been lesser than expected and what had happened not all too long after a few calm nights.

"Well", she went on after pondering this for a few moments, stepping into the elevator when it arrived and the doors opened, "it shouldn't be too dangerous tonight then, but I better still keep a few spells in the back of my mind, just in case."

"Yup", the demon nodded at once, "good idea. And in case you don't need them and can just stand back and relax, you can admire Buffy and me kicking ass."

"Oh, I like that", the redhead smiled, "especially watching you kick ass."

"I know you do", Pat chuckled, taking the chance given by the fact that the elevator hadn't arrived at the ground floor yet to pull her closer and kiss her tenderly; just when they pulled apart again, the doors opened at last and they both stepped outside, leaving the apartment building and making their way to Buffy's house, where the Slayer was waiting for them already.


	2. Chapter 2

"So how's your paper going?" Buffy asked a short while later as she strolled through the cemetery with the witch and the demon, her crossbow nonchalantly resting on one shoulder; in reply, Willow beamed at her while Pat lit up another cigarette and scanned the area around them for any signs of vampires or demons, looking a bit disappointed when everything remained quiet.

"I'm done", the witch told her best friend, "I'll just read through it once more tomorrow, but it should be all finished."

"Oh thank God", Buffy smirked in reply, her gaze focusing on the demon as she spoke on and making the taller woman smile as well while the redhead rolled her eyes in mock annoyance. "She knew no other topic for the last few days, so now that she's done, maybe we can return to more or less normal conversation."

"You're exaggerating", Willow defended herself, "we often talked about different—" She was cut off when all at once, a low growl came from their left and Buffy quickly moved her crossbow down, just in time to aim at the demon rushing at them; while she fired, the bolt to her dismay not hitting the creature in the heart, but merely in the shoulder, Pat hurriedly shoved Willow behind her, for a moment raising her sword, only to drop it when the demon landed a kick and sent the Slayer backwards, right into the black haired woman's waiting arms.

Surprising the redhead with how well attuned they were to each other by now, Pat grabbed the blonde's arms, heaving her upwards just as the demon came rushing at them; using the momentum she gained from this, Buffy practically ran up his stomach and chest, finishing the move by kicking him in the lower jaw before the drive let her effortlessly flip over Pat's head, the taller woman letting go of her just in the right moment and allowing her to land steadily behind her.

Stunned, all Willow could do was stare while her girlfriend moved forward with a low snarl, easily blocking the clumsy punch the clearly still dazed demon tried to land, returning the favour a second later hard enough to take the creature of his feet and send him crashing to the ground.

"Pat!" Buffy called out to her, causing her to glance over her shoulder and at her; with a smirk, the blonde threw her the sword, the demon catching it easily and, without even pausing, turning back to the demon again, bringing the blade up and then back down, ramming it all the way through him and nailing him to the ground.

"Good one", Buffy complimented her, watching the death throes of the demon with mild interest; before Pat could reply something, Willow spoke up, sounding so excited that it made both the demon and the Slayer look at her in surprise. "Good one? That move was amazing! When did you come up with that?"

"Oh, we got a few like that one", Buffy explained in reply while Pat pulled her sword from the by now dead demon and wiped it on the grass, "it was Giles' idea, naturally, but they work quite well… If we get them right."

"The first time we tried that one we just did, I let go of Buffy too late and we both ended up on the ground", Pat chuckled, making the Slayer smile as well at the memory while she nodded; then, another growl coming from behind them distracted them all from the topic of new moves and the success when it came to performing them, Buffy and Pat simultaneously raising their weapons as the group of vampires came at them, the smirk which slowly showed up on the faces of the two women making it clear to them that they weren't the easy, quick snack they had been hoping for.

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><p>"Well, that was kind of an anticlimax", Pat stated as she left the cemetery with Buffy and Willow, the sad ashy remains of the five vampires spread on the grass behind them; before they stepped through the cemetery gates and out on the street, they hid their weapons, not wanting to gain unwanted attention. "I've been hoping there'd be more fighting."<p>

"You're the only person I know who enjoys this", Buffy helpfully informed her in reply, smirking at the taller woman, "well, except for Faith, maybe, but she changed, so… Yeah. You are the only person I know who enjoys that."

"Can't help my nature", the demon shrugged in reply, patting her pockets until she found her cigarettes and lighting one of them up, then moving her still free hand to grasp Willow's, making her smile up at her.

"You know I get cranky if I don't beat something up for too long", the taller woman then added, making the Slayer chuckle and nod, a mischief glint in her eyes when she replied. "And we wouldn't want that, right? Especially not Willow."

"Nope", the redhead agreed at once, "no cranky Pat for me, thanks. I prefer you non-cranky." Smiling up at the taller woman, the witch stopped to demand a kiss; before the demon could bend down to fulfil that request though, a strangely familiar noise came up in the distance, causing her to stop in mid-bend and turn her head to look. A moment later, Buffy and Willow did the same, both of them frowning as they spotted the black helicopter in the distance, approaching them, the sound getting louder, raising to a deafening level when the helicopter started to lower.

"Someone likes big entrances", Pat commented as she watched it come down, stopping its descent a minute later, hovering in the air while the door slid open and a rope ladder was lowered to the ground.

"I know who likes such entrances", Buffy muttered, her gaze fixed on the helicopter, the demon feeling slightly lost when she watched how Willow stepped closer to her and put a comforting hand on her arm, prompting the blonde to briefly look at her and smiled at her, mumbling that she could handle it before she focused on the helicopter again, just in time to see the man who started coming down the rope ladder.

"You know this guy?" Pat mumbled to Willow, the redhead nodding without taking her eyes off the guy, watching him climb down until he was a meter above the ground; then, he let go of the ladder and jumped to the ground, the helicopter taking off again while the man took a moment to look himself over, then turned around and faced the three, a crooked smile on his face.

"Hi, Buffy", he greeted, "hi, Willow. I don't know you, do I?" With those last words, he looked at Pat; before she could reply anything though, Buffy spoke up, sounding surprisingly cold, considering who was standing in front of her and the friendly tone of his voice. "Hi, Riley. What are you doing here?"

"Um", Riley gave back, a bit taken aback by this way of greeting – after all, they had departed on more or less good terms the last time he had been here with his wife, so he couldn't really understand why Buffy would suddenly act towards him that way.

"We shouldn't talk about this out here on the street", he still said, giving her another smile, his gaze flickering back and forth between the blonde and the taller woman standing next to Willow, something about the way she was looking at his gear making him uncomfortable. "Do you have a secured place somewhere nearby?"

"Our apartments not far from here", Willow threw in before Buffy could tell him off, since the Slayer looked as if she would do this any moment; turning to her, the blonde gave her an incredulous look, nodded though when Riley asked if this was correct, then turned to lead the way without another word, Riley following her after a moment of watching her stunned, Pat and Willow doing the same after another second, the witch noticing the confused look on her girlfriend's face and whispering that she'd tell her later, her curiousness getting the better of her as she wondered why Riley had come here and what he might want.

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><p>Once they had arrived at the apartment, they all made themselves comfortable on the couch and various armchairs, Pat asking if anyone else wanted a drink and heading off to get one after Buffy had nodded; not wanting to miss anything, she hurriedly opened a few cans of soda, then returned to the living room, just in time to hear the Slayer ask Riley – still in a rather cold voice – what he was doing here and what he wanted.<p>

"Something big is going on", he replied, accepting the drink the black haired woman was handing to him and thanking her, noticing that she was giving his equipment another hard look before she sat down next to Willow, the way the redhead immediately grasped her hand seeming to calm her down enough so she could lean into the couch comfortably.

"I'm not sure about the details", he went on after taking a sip of his drink, now focusing on Buffy again, "but it probably won't come as a surprise to you that it might be another apocalypse."

"Yeah, big surprise here", the blonde muttered, crossing her arms over her chest and giving him a hard stare. "So", she then went on, "your government bosses figure out an apocalypse is about to happen, starting here of course, _again_, and now what? They send you here so you can hire the Slayer and of course, the Slayer will do her duty and stop it? Things don't work that way, you know."

"But Buffy", Willow said, startled at her best friend's words, "if there really is something happening, we have to stop it…"

"Yeah", the blonde gave back, her eyes never leaving Riley, "we will. But I'm not jumping through hoops for the government and their little organization, and neither will you. You'll tell us what you know, and then you'll go and stay out of it until we dealt with it, Riley."

"Not gonna happen", Riley replied, to the obvious dismay of the blonde. "This is big", he added, "maybe bigger than you think right now. You might need help."

"I will not need help from a bunch of soldiers", Buffy almost spat, crossing her arms over her chest and glaring at him. "I can't believe this", she then went on, her voice growing louder with every word she said. "You just flew out on me years ago, then came back with your wife when you needed help, then left again, and now you're back again because once more, you need help. Well, guess what, Riley, this isn't Rent a Slayer. Now, tell me what you know, and then off you go so you can tell your soldier chums we will deal with it without them. And without you."

"It'll be demons", the young man gave back after a moment, "which shouldn't be surprising, seeing that, well, they are demons."

From the corner of his eye, he saw Willow's girlfriend raise an eyebrow, ignored it for now though, focusing all his attention on Buffy again, speaking on after taking another gulp of his drink. "It's not like that one time, when we stopped them from jumping into the Hellmouth. It'll be much worse, and much more dangerous."

"Spit it out", Buffy demanded, having to admit that she was surprised at the reply which came from him a second later. "I guess you heard of the Four Horsemen?"

"Of the Apocalypse?" Buffy frowned, making him nod.

"They're demons?" Willow wanted to know, frowning as well. "I always thought they are… well, personifications of all those horrible things."

"War, Famine, Pestilence, and Death", Riley helpfully informed her, making her wonder briefly if he actually had forgotten that she wasn't exactly uneducated while he had been away; noticing the look on her face, he cleared his throat, looking a bit ashamed at what he said next. "But of course you knew that. You're smart."

"So there'll be demons posing as those unfriendly guys?" Pat wanted to know, raising an eyebrow again when Riley shook his head.

"Not exactly", he then stated, "if our research team got this right, and they usually do, it'll be much more… basic."

"Basic", Buffy echoed, the young man nodding as he focused on her again, thus not noticing the startled and worried expression which appeared on Willow's face when he replied. "The text they got on this says it won't be those personifications, as Willow called them, but something much more simple. According to them, it'll be the elements. Fire, water, earth and wind."


	3. Chapter 3

"Thrilling", Buffy stated after a moment of silence, just long enough to let him notice; he didn't make a comment about it though, but merely nodded, then reached into the bag he had brought and pulled out a rather worn-looking notebook, holding it out to the Slayer.

"This is the translation our guys made", he helpfully let her know when she didn't reach for it, "I figured Giles would want it."

"He probably will, yeah", Buffy finally admitted, grabbing the notebook and leaving through it before she handed it to Willow, the redhead giving her girlfriend a worried glance before she started looking through it as well, reading bits of the text every now and then.

"I won't just leave again", Riley told Buffy while the witch was busy with the notebook, ignoring the angry look the Slayer shot him in reply. "As I said, this might be bigger and more dangerous than you probably think right now. You'll need help, and I'll be the one to provide it." "

You know what?" Buffy snapped, obviously reaching the end of her patience, "I kinda think you're underestimating me… us… here. Wanna know what we did while you were hopping around in jungles? We went up against the devil, among other things. That's how Pat here lost her eye, but, as you can see, otherwise, she's fine. We won. And you think we'll be scared of a bunch of demons on horseback?"

"I was wondering about that patch", Riley mumbled, clearly taken aback once more by the words of his ex-girlfriend, "but Buffy, I'm not sure you're really… understanding this. If those demons are embodiments of the elements, well…"

"You'll have a hard time fighting them", Pat finished for him, briefly looking at Willow when the redhead gave her hand a squeeze, still with that concerned expression on her face. "Think about it", the demon then went on, choosing her words carefully since she had figured out a while ago where Riley had come from and whom he was working for, "they might freeze you up, or cause earthquakes around you, or send a hurricane and blow you to the magical lands of Oz. You'd make a lovely Dorothy, I'm sure, but that wouldn't exactly be helpful."

"Or they could burn her", Riley found it necessary to add, frowning a bit when Willow flinched visibly, the reaction of her girlfriend not helping to take away his confusion about this, either.

"Yeah", Pat stated slowly, "they could… burn you. I guess. If they got a fire guy."

Noticing how Willow gave her girlfriend another worried look, Riley briefly wondered what exactly was going on; then, Buffy spoke up again, gaining his attention and distracting him from the weird behaviour of the couple. "Alright, fine, you can stay and help, if it means so much to you and if you think we'll need it. But it'll be only you, none of your soldier pals, understood? And you'll do exactly as I say, and you won't go on any solo missions, or whatever you call them."

"Alright", the soldier agreed at once, giving Buffy a smile, a bit dismayed when she didn't return it; feeling a bit awkward, he hurriedly spoke on before an uncomfortable silence could form, letting her know that the government had rented a place for him and giving her the exact address and phone number.

"When I'm not there, the calls will be forwarded to my cell phone", he then let her know, getting up from his seat afterwards and explaining that he'd better go and check the place now; Buffy nodded her agreement, to his growing dismay obviously glad that he would leave, but still telling him that she'd call him as soon as Giles would've gotten done with reading the notebook he had given her.

Nodding, Riley told her to be careful, then turned and left; the moment the door fell close behind him, Buffy turned to look at Pat, the demon shifting on her seat uncomfortably as she was well aware of the topic which would come up in the next few seconds.

* * *

><p>"What if that's you?" Willow was the one to say what clearly had been on Buffy's mind as well, beating the Slayer to it; looking at her, Pat raised an eyebrow, then shook her head, to the relief of both women not sounding offended when she replied, but merely interested. "Why should it be me? I'm not evil, I have no interest in being part of that little gang."<p>

"I know you're not evil", Buffy reassured her, "but, well… What if something happens and you'll end up being one of them? Honestly, I'm not keen on fighting you, but Riley won't have any qualms do to that, especially when he finds out you're a demon."

"He used to be one of those Initiative guys, right?" the demon grimaced in reply, not surprised when Buffy nodded; concerned, Willow squeezed her hand and made her look at her again, her worry showing through her voice as well when she spoke up. "We know you're not evil, but, as Buffy said, Riley won't care about that… And what if something happens which makes you evil?"

"I don't see what that could be", Pat shrugged, smiling reassuringly at her girlfriend when she saw that those words didn't really help to take away her concern. "Honestly", she went on, "yeah, it might be me, and yeah, maybe something could happen which might turn me so evil that I want to end the world, but I doubt it. I'm not the only fire demon around here, am I?"

"I don't know", Buffy had to admit after a moment of thinking about this, "but, even if there is no other here in Sunnydale… They could come from out of town, you know. All four of them."

"Possible", Willow acknowledged, sounding so relieved that it made both Buffy and Pat smile, "but we should still ask Giles about this… Maybe he can come up with something, a spell or something, to keep away any possible influences which might turn Pat evil."

"Fine with me", the demon agreed, "even though I still don't see what should turn me evil. I didn't even go evil when I thought that you're dead, Sweetie."

"Well, it's better to be safe than sorry", Willow pointed out in reply, her words prompting Buffy to let out a sigh, that reaction making both the witch and the demon look at her with slight confusion.

"I guess the same goes for Riley", the Slayer let her friends know when she saw their expression, "so I better tell him you're a demon before he finds out when you flame up during a fight, or something. He might get trigger-happy then and shoot you, or something."

"Not a thought I like", Pat commented dryly, Willow heartily nodding her agreement; sighing again, Buffy grimaced as she thought of the talk which surely would follow that revelation, not wanting to imagine how Riley might react to such news.

"He already made some fairly idiotic comments when he heard about Oz and you", she informed the witch, "so let's see what he has to say about Pat…"

"I'd like to be there when you tell him", the demon threw in before Willow could say anything, smirking when Buffy raised an eyebrow and asked if she wanted to be there so she could punch him in case he'd say something silly.

"Maybe", she then replied, making the Slayer roll her eyes while Willow just smiled; so far, no one ever had given her much trouble about the fact that she was dating a demon, her friends accepting Pat into their circle quite quickly after they had been convinced that the demon wasn't out to kill Buffy any longer, but she was sure that, with Riley, it'd be a different story – and that her girlfriend's reaction to any insults he might let out would be a rather painful one, at least for him.

"Just promise you won't kill him", Buffy sighed after thinking about this for a moment; immediately, Pat nodded, giving her a bright smile when this fast agreement earned her a suspicious look from the Slayer.

"Well", the blonde shrugged it off after another moment, figuring that, even if Pat really would go ballistic on her ex-boyfriend, he'd be able to defend himself long enough to stay alive until Willow would've calmed her loved one down, "I better go and get this notebook to Giles then, he'll be interested to hear about this. Maybe he'll even have some extra information… More stuff than Riley's bosses knew, at least."

"Shouldn't be too hard to know more than those douchebags", Pat snarkily declared, making it her turn to be looked at with surprise, by both Buffy and Willow; she shrugged at their looks, then briefly explained that so far, her experience with people from the government usually had shown that they weren't all too bright, making the Slayer smile after a moment.

"Well", she then started, "they did try to build some sort of super demon-cyborg-hybrid, and you probably can guess how that ended."

"Badly?" the demon guessed, not surprised when Buffy nodded; then, the Slayer got up from her seat, taking the notebook back from Willow and promising that she'd call them as soon as she had spoken to Giles and knew his opinion about the situation.

"Talk to you later then", the redhead gave back, making the Slayer nod; she gave her best friend another reassuring look, silently telling her that everything surely would be fine before she left, leaving the couple behind alone and giving them the chance to talk about the things they just had been told in the privacy they needed.

* * *

><p>"This is very interesting, but not very surprising", Giles commented after he had leaved through the notebook Buffy had given him and had read bits of the text here and there; the look the Slayer gave him in reply made it clear that she wasn't really sure why he didn't think this was a surprise, and he hurried to continue.<p>

"The apocalypse starting here, again", he let her know, smiling slightly when she sighed and rolled her eyes in reply.

"Yeah, you're right about that", she then mumbled, throwing the notebook a sour look, as if it was to blame for the choice of location the various bringers of the apocalypse had made in the past. "I'm starting to think this is the only Hellmouth in the whole world. Can't they go somewhere else for once?"

"Then we'd have to travel there", Giles pointed out in reply, smiling again when she let out a snort. "You are the Slayer, after all", he found it necessary to remind her; with another sigh, Buffy nodded, briefly thinking of Faith though and wondering if the words of her mother hadn't been right back then when the other Slayer had appeared – namely, that she could take over for her; then, she shrugged those thoughts off and got up from her seat, figuring that her Watcher would want some time alone to read through the notebook Riley had left with her properly and in peace.

"I'll call you as soon as I'm done with this", he let her know when he saw her get up, making her nod; she told him to hurry and reminded him of the fact that they most likely didn't have very much time, since usually, apocalyptic things tended to happen only shortly after they had been informed about them.

"I'll be quick", the Watcher promised her in reply, once more making her nod; she forced herself to give him a smile, then said her goodbyes and left, making her way home where Dawn was waiting for her, spending the walk back there thinking about how sick she was getting of all of this and once more asking herself why it had have to been her those strange powers had chosen as the Slayer and as the one responsible for stopping the end of the world yet again.


	4. Chapter 4

In the next afternoon, the whole Scoobie gang met at the Magic Box, after Giles had called them all and had told them that they all should talk about this; to Buffy's dismay, he had asked her to call Riley as well and invite him, something she had done grudgingly, her unhappiness about his presence there clearly showing whenever she looked at him.

"I read through the text you brought me, Riley", Giles let the soldier know after the usual greetings had been exchanged and Anya had provided coffee for everyone, made with the new coffee machine Xander had purchased for the store not all too long ago. "And I have to say that it is quite unsettling. This should have been given to us much sooner, you know, now we won't have too much time anymore. If I interpreted this right, then those four horsemen mentioned will appear here in a few days, a week at the maximum, and that is not much time to prepare accordingly."

"I know", Riley sighed out in reply, "I told the guys at the research department the same. They've got so many books though, I guess it's hard to find the right one at the right time. We're probably lucky they found that at all, before it was too late."

"So, we'll be facing the four horsemen of the apocalypse", Xander stated matter-of-factly, "thrilling. I guess after going up against the devil, this shouldn't be too hard though, huh?"

"Don't take this too easy", Giles reprimanded him as an answer, giving him a strict look over the rim of his glasses. "If this text has been translated correctly, it might be quite dangerous to face those horsemen."

"Especially if our favourite demon here will be one of them", Anya pointed out happily, making Buffy, Willow and Pat groan in perfect unison – this had not been the way they had wanted to tell Riley about this fact.

"What?" the soldier immediately latched on to her words, "what are you talking about?"

"Pat's a demon", Buffy sighed out as an answer, realizing that now, there was no other way than the blunt one, "but don't flip out now, okay?"

"_What?_", Riley cried out in reply, clearly not heeding her advice about not flipping out, "and Willow's dating her? Willow, how can you do this?"

"Hey!" the demon protested, giving him a sour look and crossing her arms over her chest; ignoring her, the soldier kept staring at Willow, his gaze a mixture of shock and, to her annoyance, anger.

"I don't see how this is any of your business", she replied coldly, mimicking her girlfriend by crossing her arms over her chest as well, "and we have more urgent matters to talk about now, don't we?"

"I don't get this", Riley ranted on as an answer, "after all you've seen demons do, you _date_ one? How can you do this? That's so… wrong!"

"Hey, soldier boy", Pat snapped in reply, clearly getting more than irritated about his behaviour, "you do know I am here and that I can hear you, right?"

Even if she could hear him, he clearly wasn't capable – or willing – of returning the favour; he kept his gaze focused on the redhead, even after jumping up from his chair and beginning to pace up and down, the rest watching him with growing irritation, Giles taking off his glasses to clean them while he glared at the soldier.

"Dating a demon", Riley now repeated, clearly not able to understand that concept, even running both hands through his hair, "I can't believe this. Willow, how can you be so stupid?"

Not able to believe he really had said that, Willow only could stare at him with wide eyes; next to her, Pat let out a low growl, never a good sign – before she almost jumped up from her seat, mumbling "Okay, that's it" as she moved up to Riley and punched him straight in the jaw with surprising speed, too fast for anyone else to react.

"Ouch", Xander commented, not able to keep a slight smirk from his face, "that must have hurt."

In response, Riley let out a clearly pained groan, trying to come to his feet; before he could do so though, Pat pushed him back down, giving him a glare that made him freeze in mid-motion.

"Listen up now, soldier boy", she spat, Willow behind her unable to keep the smile away as well, having to admit that she did like it when her girlfriend showed her protective side, "this is none of your business, as _my girlfriend_ clearly pointed out, and we have more important things to do right now. So, you shut your trap about this now, because if you ever talk to her like that again, just once, I'll do more to you than just punch you. Do we have an understanding?"

For a moment, he looked as if he wanted to disagree, and maybe start ranting about this again; then, he saw the expression on the demon's face and clearly reconsidered, nodding grudgingly after his moment while he finally came to his feet.

"So", Buffy stated, to Riley's dismay clearly not feeling much pity for him, "now that this has been sorted out, can we talk about the upcoming apocalypse again? Or do you want to shout at Willow some more, Riley?"

"I'm good", the soldier muttered, sitting back down; after straightening her clothes, Pat did the same, giving the young man another glare while Willow grasped her hand, trying to calm her down again now that the situation had been resolved.

"Good", Buffy gave back, a strict look at Riley accompanying her words; then, she looked at her Watcher again and motioned at him to go on, something he did after he had put his glasses back on, the rest listening to him with their attention fully focused on him – except for Riley, who kept looking at Pat every now and then, that strange mixture of shock and anger showing in his eyes again whenever he did so.

* * *

><p>"And Buffy really dated that jerk?" Pat asked several hours later, back in the apartment she shared with her girlfriend; they had spent the last hours at the Magic Box, trying to figure out ways how to keep Pat from becoming one of the four horsemen, a possibility which did exist, as they all had to admit, and how to stop them in general, without too much success though.<p>

"Yes", Willow now answered the question of her loved one, smiling slightly again at her description for Riley, "it didn't end well though."

"Why am I not surprised", the demon commented dryly while she helped herself to a can of soda from the fridge; with her smile widening slightly, the witch stepped closer to her and embraced her, the demon hurriedly putting her drink aside so she could return the hug properly.

"I guess he just didn't get it", the redhead stated something which was rather obvious, "he's been in the Initiative, as you know, and it was his job to capture demons for them… Buffy told me he's got that black-and-white world view of 'Humans are good, demons are bad'."

"Obviously", Pat dryly gave back, shaking her head, "I'm just glad those guys aren't active around here anymore, or who knows what he might have done."

"Buffy wouldn't have let him do anything", Willow reassured her, "but I understand why you're glad about that. I just wish we'd found out more at that meeting today…"

"Me too", the demon agreed, pulling back from the embrace so she could get out her cigarettes and light one of them up, "especially about that concern you all seem to have which involves me becoming one of those guys. I still don't see why that should happen, but apparently, all of you do."

"Believe me, I don't want it to happen", Willow sighed out in reply, giving her girlfriend an apologetic look, "but you have to admit that it might be possible, with you being a fire demon and everything."

"I'm surely not the only one here", Pat reminded her in reply, "and, as Giles said today, they might come from out of town. Or out of the Hellmouth, or whatever."

"I hope so, as weird as that may sound", Willow mumbled in reply, leaning against the kitchen counter and watching her girlfriend smoke, the thought of her being one of those four demons clearly unsettling her.

"That's how it'll be", the black haired woman reassured her confidently, putting out her cigarette and moving over to her so she could hug her again, making the redhead smile slightly. "Stop worrying about that…"

"I'll try", Willow promised her after a moment of silence; to her relief, Pat clearly accepted this, since she nodded and kissed her tenderly, then changed the topic by asking if she was hungry as well, making the witch nod as well, the unpleasant possibility of the demon ending up as one of the four horsemen at least for the moment forgotten.

* * *

><p>Even though she had promised her girlfriend that she would stop worrying, Willow couldn't keep herself from thinking about the upcoming danger, her mind constantly wandering back to the unpleasant subject; to her dismay, Buffy noticed this the moment they met at the campus in the next afternoon, after their classes.<p>

"What's up?" the blonde asked while they made their way to the lecture hall together, giving her best friend a concerned look, "you look worried. This isn't about Riley and the idiotic things he said yesterday, right?"

"No", Willow gave back at once, briefly wondering why the Slayer would think she was worried about that, then shrugging it off, a small sigh escaping her before she voiced her obvious concerns. "I'm worried about that… thing… You know Anya had a point with what she said yesterday."

"She did", Buffy had to admit, making sure to choose her words as wisely as Willow, since quite a lot of unsuspecting students were all around them, none of them having an idea about the true colours of the town they were living in.

"I'm more worried about Riley though", she went on after a moment, "after we told him that yesterday, well… If Anya was right, I'm sure there'll be a way to get her back, but only if Riley doesn't go trigger happy first."

Grimacing at that thought, Willow had to admit that this was a possibility; after all, the soldier had made it quite clear what he thought of her relationship with the demon, and even though she figured that he had deserved that punch for talking about her girlfriend and her that way, she now doubted that it had helped with making him trust Pat despite her demonic nature.

"I guess I should talk to him about that", the Slayer now muttered, gaining her best friend's attention again, the sound of her voice and the look on her face making it more than clear that she wasn't really looking forward to this kind of talk; still, Willow nodded, giving the blonde an encouraging smile afterwards, giving her best to sound light-hearted when she replied. "Or I could do that. Seeing that Pat's my girlfriend, and everything…"

"I just wish this wasn't necessary at all", Buffy sighed out as an answer, "but the last thing we need is him doing something stupid during a fight or something."

"I'll try to talk some sense into him", Willow promised in reply, telling herself that it'd be only fair if she did this and that it'd spare Buffy from having to do it, the relief which instantly showed on the blonde's face making the witch smile slightly.

"You really aren't happy that he's here, are you", she stated the obvious, the Slayer giving her a sour look in reply, her voice dry when she answered. "Thanks for stating the obvious… It's not him in person who ticks me off so much though, it's more because his bosses seem to think that, whenever they need help, they can just send him here to hire me and I'll deal with it. Of course I will deal with it, but, as I told him, this isn't Rent a Slayer…"

"I understand why that ticks you off", Willow reassured her, choosing her next words wisely since she didn't want to annoy her best friend further, "and believe me, after what he said to me about Pat, I'm not all too happy with him being here either, but… I guess we should be glad they did send him here, or maybe, we wouldn't have known about this until it would've been too late."

"I know", Buffy sighed out, "and he surely will be helpful, but still… It's annoying how he just makes his big entrance here with the helicopter and everything and claims that I jump through hoops for him. That all of us jump through hoops… Except for Pat maybe, I think he'd prefer her to jump off a cliff."

"I'm just glad the Initiative isn't working around here anymore", Willow mumbled in reply, shuddering briefly as she remembered the areas she had seen of said organisation, especially the small, brightly lit cells where the demons and vampires had been kept, the thought of her girlfriend in one of them sending another shiver down her spine. Buffy nodded her agreement to that, clearly well aware of what her best friend was thinking of; she let out another sigh, then suddenly brightened up, her next words making the redhead smile again as well. "Alright, that's enough gloomy talking for me, I need some sugar and caffeine now. You got any other classes, or wanna go to the Espresso Pump with me for a mocha or two?"

"Sure", Willow agreed at once, to Buffy's obvious happiness, "I just have to stop by at the professor's office for a minute and hand in my paper, then we can go."

"Great", the Slayer smiled, "I'll wait then…" Nodding, the redhead smiled back at her; then, they made their way to the building where the professor's office was located, looking forward to the mochas and the hopefully calm time awaiting them at the café.


	5. Chapter 5

To Buffy's surprise – and slight dismay – it didn't take Willow just a minute to deliver her paper, as she had said, but almost twenty minutes, and when the redhead finally came back out of the office, the expression on her face immediately told the Slayer that something was amiss.

"What happened?" she thus wanted to know, concern in her voice while she stepped closer to her friend, placing a calming hand on her arm, noticing with alarm that the witch was trembling slightly.

"Willow, what happened?" she repeated, her worry reaching new heights when Willow only shook her head in reply, then took in a deep breath, suddenly looking as if she was close to bursting into tears; after a short glance at the door the redhead had closed behind herself when she had left the office, Buffy put one arm around her shoulders and led her down the hallway, racking her brain as she tried to figure out what might have happened in there.

Despite her now high concern, she managed to keep quiet until they had left the building together; once they were outside, she looked at her best friend with concern again, her voice low and calming when she spoke up once more. "What happened? Are you alright?"

"I… I don't know", the redhead replied after a moment, her voice trembling slightly, "I don't think so…"

Biting her tongue so she wouldn't ask for a third time what had happened, Buffy once more forced herself to keep quiet, sensing that the witch would go on in a few moments; after taking in a few more deep breaths, Willow did just that, the tremble in her voice increasing more and more with every word she said, Buffy's eyes going wide at what her friend was telling her.

"I gave him my paper", she recalled the reason for her upset state, "and he… at first he was like always, you know, like he is in class, nice and everything, telling me he's looking forward to reading it and stuff… Then he got up and moved around the table and stood next to me and told me that he's one of those who get to decide which paper will be published, and that… I could help him with his decision by being nice to him, and then… he touched me…"

"What?" Buffy finally brought out, shocked; she had heard such horror stories about nasty old professors abusing their position of power like that from her mother when she had entered college, but she never would have thought it might happen to her or anyone close to her. "He asked you to be nice to him and touched you?"

Nodding, Willow took in another deep breath, nervously running one hand through her hair, sounding a bit calmer though when she spoke up again. "Groped me, actually… I slapped his hand away and got up and left, I couldn't even come up with anything to say."

"We have to report this", Buffy gave back after a moment, shaking her head in disbelief. "Before he does this again, to you or to someone else…"

"Who knows how often he did that already", Willow muttered in reply, her eyes going wide a second later as another thought hit her. "I'll report it", she then let the blonde know, "but please don't tell anyone else about this. Especially not Pat. Please?"

"Huh?" the Slayer gave back, a bit stunned by this request, "why? I figured you'd tell her, anyway…"

"No", Willow immediately shook her head, prompting Buffy to raise both eyebrows. "You know how she gets when something like that happens", the redhead went on, making Buffy nod after a few moments of thinking of such events in the past – and how the guys who had made the mistake to get their hands on the redhead against her will had ended up having their lights punched out by an enraged demon.

"Not that I would mind her punching him", Willow now went on, distracting her from those memories, "especially not after how he groped my chest, but… I don't want her to get into trouble, and he just wouldn't let that slip without it reporting it…"

"You're probably right about that", Buffy had to admit, visions of the police showing up at the apartment of Willow and Pat dancing through her head, accompanied by what might happen if said police would try to do a background check on the demon.

"Alright, I won't tell anyone about this", she added after a moment, "but you should report it as fast as possible… Actually, right now would probably be good."

"You're right", Willow agreed, once more running one hand through her hair nervously, "and afterwards, I think I'll really need that mocha…"

Nodding, Buffy placed a comforting hand on her shoulder and gave it a squeeze; to her relief, the redhead gave her a weak smile a moment later, then they set off together again, making their way to the building where the Dean's office was located.

* * *

><p>When Willow returned to her home two hours later, she wasn't surprised to hear heavy metal music play through the door once more; despite the fact that she still was rather upset about what had happened, she smiled slightly to herself at the familiar sound while she unlocked the door and entered, her smile widening slightly when she found her girlfriend in the living room, sitting on the couch and bending over some thick, old looking book, her brow furrowed in concentration.<p>

"Hey", Willow greeted, carelessly dropping her book bag on the ground next to the living room door and moving to sit next to her girlfriend, "what are you reading? Doesn't look all too thrilling."

"It's boring as Hell, and the print is tiny", Pat complained in reply, giving the book an angry look before she focused on her girlfriend, Willow's heart warming up when she saw how immediately, the taller woman relaxed visibly and, without even noticing it fully, started to smile the moment she was looking at the redhead.

"Giles brought that by today", she explained, gesturing at the book, the quite full ashtray next to it showing that she had been busy with it for quite some time, "it's supposed to hold more information about that horsemen stuff, but the guy who wrote it never heard of an index or something, so I've spent the time while you were gone with going through it."

"Wow, you've been research gal then", the witch smiled, forgetting the unpleasant situation with her professor and the not very satisfying visit at the Dean's office the moment her loved one pulled her into a tender embrace; the Dean had promised her to look into the incident, and had treated her with concerned care, but since no one had been there to see anything, it probably would end up being her word against the professor's.

"How's it been at college?" Pat now asked, distracting her from her thoughts about the incident and the talk with the Dean, "I bet it's been more thrilling than my day has been."

"I guess so", Willow gave back, an image of the professor and his groping hands flashing up in front of her inner eye; involuntarily, she stiffened, nearly slapping herself when immediately, Pat gave her a concerned look.

"You okay?" the demon asked after a moment, sounding as worried as Buffy had when she had come out of the professor's office; forcing herself to smile, Willow nodded, a bit stunned by how fast her girlfriend had noticed that something was amiss, but on the other hand, they were together for several years now, so it shouldn't come as a surprise that the demon knew her so well.

"It was a bit tiring, that's all", she told the taller woman, feeling bad about lying to her, but knowing that if she'd tell her what really had happened, Pat probably would rush off to beat the professor up, no matter what she'd say to stop her. "Exhausting classes and everything, you know how it is…"

"Yeah", the demon agreed, her concern obviously fading away, to the redhead's relief, even though she still felt bad about lying to her, "poor you… But now, you're at home and have time to relax. How about a backrub?"

"That'd be great", Willow sighed in reply, shifting on the couch afterwards so Pat could give her the offered backrub; smiling, the demon started doing just that, making the redhead sigh with pleasure when her fingers started to work on the tense muscles of her shoulders.

"By the way", the witch spoke up after enjoying that for a while in content silence, "Buffy and I talked about Riley today, and his reaction to our relationship… We came to the conclusion that I'll talk to him, so he'll be focusing on the upcoming apocalypse and not on you."

"Want me to come with you when you have that talk?" Pat asked in reply, not surprised when immediately, Willow shook her head.

"No, Sweetie, no offense, but it'll be better if you don't", she then gave back, "if he acts like he did yesterday in the store, you'll just end up punching him again, and that won't exactly help with making him trust you more."

"I don't really care if he trusts me or not", the demon shrugged in reply, "but yeah, you're right, it'll probably end badly if I go there with you. Promise me though you'll tell me if he says something stupid again, alright?"

"Alright", the redhead agreed, then winced when Pat's fingers found a particularly sore spot and dug into it; to her relief, the pain faded away quickly, allowing her to relax again as she enjoyed the backrub, smiling to happily to herself as she thought about how lucky she was to have such a caring person in her life and by her side.

* * *

><p>After the backrub, the couple prepared and ate dinner together, then made themselves comfortable on the couch to watch some TV, after Pat had declared that she had enough of that "stupid dusty old book" for now; to her slight surprise, Willow seemed to be even more affectionate than usual, constantly snuggling up to her and always keeping one of her hands either on the demon's or on her upper leg.<p>

"Wow", she finally commented after enjoying that for a while, even though it did strike her as a bit odd, "not that you're not willing to cuddle and stuff normally, but today, it's even more so than usual. How come?"

"No special reason", Willow gave back, once more feeling bad for not being fully honest with her girlfriend – in all the years they had been together now, this was the first time she had lied to her like that, but again, she reminded herself of why it was necessary to do so. "I'm just… happy, I guess, despite the whole horsemen and apocalypse thing… I think I just realized once more how happy you make me."

"Oh", Pat gave back, not all too smart, but smiling; she quickly regained her composure though, her smile widening slightly while she moved one hand to play with a strand of her girlfriend's hair, something she never seemed to grow tired of. "Well… I'm glad to hear that… 'Cause I wanna make you happy, you know…"

"You do", Willow reassured her, leaning in for a tender kiss before she spoke on, the TV and the show they had been watching forgotten as the two of them were fully focusing on each other now.

"And I'll give my best to keep doing that as long as you let me", the demon now let her know, making this one of the rare moments when she actually voiced her feelings, something which still wasn't easy for her and probably never would be. "I love you…"

"I love you, too", Willow gave back, smiling; the black haired woman smiled back at her for a moment, then pulled her closer for another kiss, one that didn't remain as innocent as the short one they had shared before, but quickly deepened, all thoughts about the lies she had told being blown out of the redhead's mind a few minutes later.


	6. Chapter 6

In the next morning, Willow used the chance given by the fact that she'd only have classes in the afternoon to call Riley and ask him if she could come to his place and talk; he grudgingly agreed, probably knowing what exactly she wanted to talk about, letting her know that he was at home and that she could come over immediately if she wanted to. After telling him that she'd be there in twenty minutes, the redhead hung up the phone and checked her wallet, planning to bring coffee and maybe muffins or donuts as a gesture of good will; once she had made sure that she had enough money to do just that, she told Pat where she was going and that she'd hopefully have time to come back home once more before her classes were starting.

"Call me if you can't make it, alright?" the demon replied to that, "just so I'll know and won't worry that some demon ate you, or something."

"I'll call you", the witch smiled in reply, "but you don't need to worry about me getting eaten, you know my magic's been working very well lately…"

"I know", the taller woman reassured her, "but well, we are in Sunnydale, so…"

"I'll call you", Willow repeated, giving her another smile before she demanded a goodbye kiss, which was gladly given; afterwards, she told the demon not to smoke too much while she'd busy herself with the book Giles had brought by, then left the apartment, thinking about how to start the conversation about her relationship without beating around the bush for too long.

When she arrived at the Espresso Pump, she got distracted from those thoughts by the task of buying two large coffees and a box of donuts, to her relief remembering that Riley preferred those to muffins; after she had armed herself with those gifts, she made her way to the small house Riley's bosses had rented for him, the soldier opening the door just seconds after she had rang the bell.

"I hope you haven't had breakfast yet", she greeted him, holding up the coffees and the donuts, smiling when he told her he hadn't; he stepped inside to let her enter, leading her into a small living room afterwards and offering her a seat there. Thanking him, the redhead sat down, then offered one of the coffees; he took it before he took a seat as well, Willow buying some more time afterwards by opening the box of donuts and holding it out to him, smiling when he took one and bit into it heartily.

"So", she then slowly began, choosing her words wisely, "I guess you know what I want to talk about…"

"Yeah", Riley gave back after hurriedly swallowing the mouthful of donut, not saying anything else though; swallowing, the witch tried to figure out how to go on, then decided a direct approach would be best and gestured at the bruise which evidenced the punch he had received.

"I hope that's not hurting too much", she stated, a bit relieved when he shook his head, then even gave her a tiny smile.

"Is she always like that?" he then asked, interrupting himself with a sip of his coffee before he went on. "So protective, I mean?"

"Yeah", Willow gave back, smiling back at him and momentarily thinking of the several times when Pat had shown just how protective she felt about her, "she is… I don't know if it's a demon thing or something, but she gets really mad when someone insults me, or gropes me, or does equally unpleasant stuff."

"Could be a demon thing", Riley muttered in reply, "and to be honest, I'm kinda surprised you even can date a demon. I thought demons aren't capable of… that emotion."

"Well, she thought the same", Willow let him know in reply, remembering how confused and upset the demon had been when she had realized what kind of feelings she was developing for the witch, how she had paced up and down in the dorm room the redhead still had been sharing with Buffy back then and had tried to make her understand that she really was in love with her, after a few rather saddening and disappointing incidents between them.

"You should have seen her", she went on after taking a sip of her coffee as well, "she was so confused and everything… But, as you can see, we worked that out, together, and we've been a couple for several years now."

"Really", Riley gave back, sounding so surprised that the redhead just had to giggle, "oh… I thought this only has been going on for a few weeks, or something. Well, I guess you understand why I'm still not all too fond of the thought of anyone dating a demon, especially when it's someone I've been friends with, but…"

He trailed off and sighed, moving one hand through his hair as he tried to figure out how to say what was on his mind, without accidentally insulting the witch and thus making things worse.

"Well", he finally spoke on, "if it's been that long, I guess it's working out and that you know what you're doing… Plus, well, you were right when you said it's not really any of my business… I just want to be sure that she won't end up stabbing us in the back or something when the time to fight comes."

"She'd never do that", Willow immediately reassured him, a bit shocked that he actually had been thinking that, "she's been fighting with Buffy… with us… ever since we got together. Buffy mentioned this to you, she lost her eye when we went up against the devil, remember?"

"I remember", the soldier gave back, "how exactly did that happen? I guess I can relate to her about that, I nearly lost an eye too shortly after I left Sunnydale…"

With those words, he gestured at the scar which split his eyebrow and ran down over the eyelid to his cheek; nodding, Willow grimaced as she thought of how this dreadful thing had happened to her loved one, even though back then, she hadn't been able to see it properly.

"I didn't actually see it, she had her back turned to me when that guy – a priest, working for the devil – did that to her", she thus informed Riley, "but she told me later, when she had recovered from the shock enough to actually be able to talk about it… He caved it in with his thumb, after quoting the bible at her."

"Ouch", the soldier gave back, for the first time showing sympathy and thus an emotion different from the disdain he had displayed towards the demon so far, "that must have been painful… How is she handling it?"

"She got used to it by now, I guess", Willow shrugged, briefly wondering why he seemed to interested in this, then shrugging it off, "but of course, her depth perception's all gone, and her left side's kinda blind now, so Buffy always makes sure to stay there as much as possible when they go on patrol together."

"Makes sense", Riley gave back, finishing his coffee before he smiled at the witch again, a more heartfelt, honest smile this time. "Well", he then went on, "I guess I'll be fine with that from now on then… And I guess I should apologize to her for the things I said, think she'd appreciate that?"

"For sure", Willow smiled, glad that this had worked out so well and so quickly, "she'll probably also apologize for punching you, then you can make proper peace."

"Sounds good to me", Riley agreed, then changed the topic by asking her what else had been going on since he had left; they ended up talking for another one and a half hours, finishing the donuts during that time and washing them down with fresh coffee the soldier prepared when their cups were empty, then Willow let him know that she had to go to campus now and that she was glad they had talked, leaving his house with a smile on her face, happy about how well this talk had worked out.

* * *

><p>To her great dismay, the last class of the day was with the professor who had groped her the day before; it surprised her a bit that they'd just let him teach as if nothing had happened after the accusations she had made, but on the other hand, there probably was a long and complicated bureaucratic process behind handling such incidents, and she figured that she was safe from his groping hands as long as she was in a lecture hall filled with other students. To her relief, he didn't even look at her when he entered the hall and started the lecture; while he talked, he did glance at her once, but immediately looked away again, making her wonder if he actually was ashamed about what he had done – or if he was pissed about the fact that she had dared to speak about it to the Dean, and that maybe, when he had done something similar before, he never had been reported.<p>

Despite how uncomfortable she felt about being in the same room with this guy, even when thirty other people were there with her, she gave her best to follow the lecture and to not let anyone else notice that anything was amiss; still she was glad when finally, it was over, quickly packing up her stuff and getting ready to leave, only to freeze when his voice came from behind her, sounding pleasant, as if nothing had happened. "Miss Rosenberg, if you'd have a minute…"

Telling herself that he surely wouldn't try anything right here, with tons of people outside, Willow turned around and moved back to his desk; he gave her a pleasant smile, looking up at her from his seat, his hands folded on the desk in front of him, the redhead figuring that she'd be fine as long as they'd stay there.

"I had a talk with the Dean yesterday", he started the conversation, still in that pleasant tone, "and after thinking about that talk for a while, I'd like to advise you that you take back the accusations you made."

"What?" Willow gave back, barely able to believe her ears and how audacious he was; he just smiled again, then nodded, leaning back into his seat and making himself comfortable.

"You see", he went on, the pleasant tone never leaving his voice, "if you insist on having this… examined further, it will only be unpleasant for the both of us, and lead nowhere – it'd be my word against yours, as you surely figured out, someone as smart as you. And you do know that in the end, I have more pull in this situation, right? Seeing how smart you are, as I just pointed out."

"What do you mean, you have more pull?" the witch demanded to know, making him raise an eyebrow, a small, sardonic smile curling his lips afterwards.

"Oh, come on, Miss Rosenberg", he then gave back, "I just pointed out how smart you are, twice, and you can't figure this out?"

Leaning forward again, his gaze hardened, his voice growing cold as well, his next words making the redhead's eyes widen slightly. "I've been a professor here for years", he let her know, "so what do you think, whom will people believe more? Me, a renowned man with a long, successful career, or you, a student who maybe was pissed about her paper not ending up in a certain magazine, or had a grudge against me for some other petty reason? Not to mention the fact that I can mess up your academic life more than you might believe right now."

Stunned into disbelieving silence, all Willow could do was stare at him in response; smiling at her again, he gestured at the door which led out of the lecture hall, his voice back to the pleasant tone it had had before his thinly veiled threats when he spoke up again. "That would be everything then, Miss Rosenberg. Have a nice day… And think about my suggestion."

Still shocked about his words, the redhead merely grasped her bag tighter in reply and left without another word; she could feel his gaze on her back as she did so, relief briefly filling her when the door fell close behind her and blocked her from his view, only to be drowned again in the mix of anger, shock and helplessness which was filling her.

Dazed, she walked outside without even noticing where she was going, her feet moving automatically while her mind was racing; several of the students who knew her gave her worried looks, but she didn't even notice, her gaze focused on the ground between her feet as she walked the campus paths, so lost in her thoughts that she didn't even hear it when a voice she should have recognized at once called out to her.

"Hey, Willow", Pat tried again, slightly louder this time, frowning to herself since the redhead never had ignored her like this before and hurrying up her steps to catch up with her, glad when finally, the witch seemed to acknowledge her and turned to look at her, "I thought I'd surprise you and…"

Noticing the look on her girlfriend's face, the demon trailed off, momentarily silenced – before she reached out and grasped her hand, the concern in her voice when she spoke on all at once bringing Willow close to tears. "Hey, Sweetie, what's wrong? Did something happen?"

The concern along with the affectionate nickname was enough to push the redhead over the edge; she sniffled as she tried to hold back her tears, then lost the brief struggle, a small sob escaping her while they started to roll down her cheeks, the sound and sight clearly shocking the black haired woman.

"Hey", she said for the third time, as always when she saw her girlfriend cry feeling awfully helpless, pulling her into a comforting embrace and glaring at a student who just seemed a bit too interested at the scene, sending him on, "Sweetie, don't cry, please? Whatever it is, we can figure something out, don't cry…"

In response, the witch sniffled a few more times, then forced herself to pull herself together, telling herself that her girlfriend was right and that they would figure something out; swallowing another sob, she looked up at the taller woman at last, even able to smile weakly when Pat gave her a calming smile and reached up with one hand to gently wipe off the tears drying on her cheeks.

"We should go somewhere more private to… talk", she stated once she could be sure she wouldn't start crying again the moment she'd open her mouth, "I think I'm in enough trouble as it is, there's no need to make it worse by letting the whole campus hear it…"

This clearly worried Pat even more, but she nodded her agreement; together, the two of them made their way to the dorm buildings, deciding that the room Willow had been sharing with Buffy before she had moved in with her girlfriend was safe enough for their talk, arriving there a few minutes later and making themselves comfortable before the redhead, after a few deep breaths, started talking, confessing the fact that she had lied the day before and telling her girlfriend everything, knowing that now, she didn't have much of a choice anymore.


	7. Chapter 7

To her surprise and slight worry, Pat was strangely calm after she had finished confessing and telling her everything; for an uncharacteristically long while, the demon remained quiet, just looking at her, making her fear that she was so angry about the fact she had been lied to that she was fighting down the urge to just burst into flames and burn everything.

"Well", the black haired woman finally spoke up, with no smoke or even flames appearing, to the witch's great relief, "I guess I understand why you didn't want to tell me what that asshole did, because right now, I just want to go there and pound the shit out of him. I also understand that this wouldn't really help you with the situation though, so I hope you'll appreciate the fact that I'm holding myself back from storming off right now."

"I do", Willow hurriedly reassured her, "and I'm really, really sorry that I wasn't honest with you… I shouldn't have lied to you…"

"As I said, I understand that", Pat gave back, reaching out to grasp the redhead's hand and making her smile slightly, glad that she wasn't mad at her, "so don't worry about it… We should focus on how to handle this. How much can this dick mess with you if he wants to?"

"I don't know", Willow sighed out in reply, giving her girlfriend a miserable look, "all the other teachers know I'm a good student, so it'd probably be suspicious if he just started giving me bad grades… But I have no idea what else he can do, or if he even can do anything and wasn't just bluffing."

"This guy really has bad timing", Pat sighed out in reply, shaking her head, "as if that horsemen thing wasn't enough. Can't I just beat him up after all? That might solve everything."

"No", the redhead immediately gave back, to her loved one's clear dismay, "he wouldn't just take it and shut up like those guys did you beat up in the Bronze, he'd report you to the police."

"You're probably right about that", the demon had to admit grudgingly, "so what do we do? Honestly, I'd love to just come up with the perfect solution, but my mind's kinda blanking right now."

"So's mine", Willow sighed out in reply, giving her girlfriend a dismayed look.

"Maybe we should tell the others, too", Pat suggested after a moment, quickly speaking on when she saw the unhappy expression those words had caused to appear on the redhead's face, "Giles might know what to do. Or, as much as I don't wanna say that, maybe even Riley, I mean, he's in the military, they must have dealt with such stuff before, having men and women there…"

"I guess so", the redhead had to admit, not liking the thought of telling everyone about this, but figuring that, if she wanted to solve it without ending up giving in to the lecherous professor's demands, she'd need the kind of help the demon couldn't give her.

"I wish I could give better advice", Pat now sighed out, giving the witch an apologetic glance, "but I really have no idea how else we could handle this…"

"We should at least tell Giles", Willow decided in reply, a sigh following those words, making it quite clear that she still wasn't all too happy with the thought; squeezing her hand tenderly, the demon gave her a reassuring look, giving her best to sound soothing when she replied.

"You know he'll help you", she told the redhead, "I'm sure he'll come up with something. And the rest of us, we'll all help you however we can, as well…"

"I know", Willow gave back, smiling weakly again when the taller woman pulled her into a comforting embrace, "and it means a lot to me to know that I'll have your support, no matter what…"

"Of course", Pat immediately replied, sounding a bit stunned about the redhead's words. "What kind of a partner would I be if I didn't support you?"

"Not a good one, I guess", Willow had to admit, making the demon nod her agreement; afterwards, the taller woman let go of the witch's hand and got up from her seat, making her way to the window and opening it before she found her cigarettes and lit one of them up, a small sigh escaping her while Willow moved up to stand beside her, prompting her to put an arm around her, the couple just standing there in silence for a while afterwards, both thinking about the situation with her professor and how this could be handled before the impending apocalypse would bring chaos to their world once more.

* * *

><p>Almost two hours later, Buffy, Willow and Pat all sat in Giles' living room, looking at the Watcher in silence while they waited for him to say something; the redhead just had finished telling Buffy and him of what the professor had done and had said to her earlier that day, his barely veiled threats briefly enraging the Slayer so much that she almost decided to go for Pat's suggestion and beat the guy up.<p>

"This is a very difficult situation", Giles finally stated the obvious, his gaze focusing on the redhead, "because, as he said, if you don't do what he wants and take back the accusations, it will be his word against yours."

"I know", Willow sighed out, wondering if this was leading anywhere – after all, they had come here for help, and so far, he hadn't told her anything she didn't know yet.

"I don't think he can do much damage to your academic life", the Watcher now went on, sounding thoughtful, "that probably just was an empty threat, or a bluff. You're a good student, too good to just be given bad grades for no apparent reason, out of the blue. You did well in his class before, right?"

"Yeah", Willow confirmed, not really surprising the elder man, "straight A's all the way, so he can't just start giving me bad grades. Are you sure this was just an empty threat?"

"I can't be fully sure about that", Giles pointed out to her, "but to be honest, I don't see how he could do any damage to your reputation. Even if he'd started slandering you among the other professors, well, you're doing well in their classes, too, and after what you accused him of, this might actually make them more inclined to believe you, instead of him."

"Good point", Willow admitted, immediately feeling a bit better about the situation – not much though, since so far, they still hadn't come up with a solution.

"It's kind of a pity that there was no one around to see him do that", Buffy mumbled after a few moments of more silence, making everyone else look at her, "if we had a witness, that'd be much easier, but he's probably too smart to let that happen."

"Unfortunately", Pat commented, digging out her cigarettes before she noticed Giles' look and sighed, getting up from her seat afterwards and telling the others she'd be right back; nodding, Willow watched her go, then focused on the Watcher again, the demon hearing her ask if there was anything she could do to get this sorted out quickly before the door fell close behind her, cutting her voice off.

With another sigh, the black haired woman lit up a cigarette, not bothering with a lighter since no one was around to see her anyway, but doing it by making a tiny flame appear on her index finger; moments later, she jumped when a voice came, startled, relieved when she saw who the owner of that voice was.

"Impressive", Riley stated, clearly giving his best to sound friendly, but not fully succeeding, "that part of your demonic side?"

"Yup", the demon gave back, eying him curiously and wondering what he was doing here – even though she had suggested that he should be told about this, no one had called him yet, making this a rather unexpected visit from him.

"Looks neat", the soldier now stated, for once not recognizable as one since he was wearing civilian clothes, the black haired woman only now noticing the book bag he had slung over one shoulder, allowing her to guess the reason for his unexpected appearance.

"Let me guess", she thus stated in reply, gesturing at the bag with her free hand, "Giles decided to give you some homework as well?"

"Yeah, he did", Riley gave back, smiling slightly, looking down at the bag momentarily, then at Pat again, the friendliness in his voice more present and honest when he went on. "I wasn't all too successful though. You?"

"Not really", Pat had to admit, with a small sigh; while she took another drag of her cigarette, the soldier momentarily racked his brain for the right words, then spoke up again, now sounding a bit hesitant.

"You know, I had a talk with Willow earlier today", he started, making the demon nod as she remembered that her girlfriend had mentioned she would go and see Riley, but after all the drama with the professor, this small detail had completely slipped her mind, until now. "And, well", the soldier went on, "I guess I owe you an apology… She told me that you've been together for quite some time now, and anyway, it's not really any of my business so… I'm sorry for what I said and how I acted."

"Uh, okay", Pat accepted his words, taken a bit aback by them, having to admit that she hadn't thought Willow's attempts to make him more accepting of their relationship would work out so well, "thanks, I guess… And, uh, I'm sorry for punching you."

The fact that he chuckled in reply surprised her even more than the apology itself had, and she raised an eyebrow; noticing the quizzical expression on her face, he quickly explained the reason for his amusement, making her smile slightly as well. "Willow said you'd probably apologize too once I did. Guess she really knows you well."

"She does", Pat smirked, finishing her cigarette afterwards and putting it out by stepping on it, crunching it beneath her boot, "but, well, we should get back inside, Giles will want to hear about your research and maybe you can help us with another matter we're dealing with right now…"

"I will if I can", Riley promised in reply, making the demon nod once more; together, the two made their way back inside, the others reacting with slight surprise to Riley's appearance as well, all of them obviously glad though that Pat and he had managed to sort out their differences, thus making sure that there was at least one thing they wouldn't need to worry about anymore.

* * *

><p>Once Riley had made himself comfortable and Giles had offered him some tea – which he had declined – Willow quickly had told him about the situation with the professor; he seemed righteously angry about the man's behaviour, couldn't offer any advice either, though, explaining that, even though such occurrences surely happened in the military as well, there never had been such an incident in his team, and he didn't know anyone who had been forced to deal with something similar.<p>

"I know though that, in case such accusations are made against a soldier, he's suspended", he then added, obviously eager to soften the disappointment about the fact that he couldn't help much, "so I'm surprised they didn't do that yet."

"Me, too", Giles agreed, finally doing what everyone had been expecting him to do for the last half hour bye taking off his glasses and beginning to clean them, "how did the Dean react to your words, Willow?"

"Well, he was concerned", the redhead gave back after thinking about this for a moment, "and he seemed to take it seriously…"

"I got the same impression", Buffy decided to give some input as well, "he definitely took it seriously. But, I dunno, maybe he wants to look into it further before he takes any action…"

"It's too bad there's no proof at all", Riley repeated what Buffy had said before his arrival, "if someone would've seen that, or something… Heard anything… Buffy, you didn't hear anything when she was in his office?"

"Unfortunately, no", the Slayer sighed in reply. "Now I kinda regret I didn't just walk in there when it took so long, I might have seen… something then."

"Well, that can't be helped anymore", Pat shrugged, smiling slightly when Willow moved a bit closer to her on the couch and put one hand on her leg, "so unless you wanna set up a trap for him and try again to catch him in the act…"

She trailed off when she saw the look on Buffy's face, her good eye widening moments later when she realized what that look meant. "Oh, no no no", she hurriedly stated, sitting up straight, giving the Slayer a strict glare, "that was not a suggestion or a plan. That was just stupid mindless rambling from my part, you know, something I do sometimes. Randomly. Stupidly."

"Actually, you hardly ever do that", Buffy pointed out, "but, yeah, you're right, it wouldn't be a good plan."

"Not at all", Giles threw in, "in fact, it might jeopardize your credibility, Willow, so I advise against this."

"I wouldn't have been willing to do that anyway", the redhead immediately gave back, shuddering at the mere thought of being alone in the same room with that man, let alone the mental image of his hands on her chest again, accompanied by his voice telling her to be "nice to him".

"I'll try to ask my supervisor about how we handle this", Riley promised, getting the topic away from any silly plans, to the obvious relief of both Willow and Pat with what he said next. "But now, we should focus on the threat of those four horsemen… Unfortunately, Giles, I had no luck with the book you brought me. Anyone else?"

"Nope", Pat was the first one to answer, "I spent hours going through that book, but it was no good, it's all just about the biblical horsemen stuff, and you already told us they won't be like that."

"That's what our research guys found in their books", Riley let her know, "and I have no reason to doubt what they said."

"We weren't lucky, either", Anya spoke up next, with a sigh, giving the soldier a miserable look as she spoke on, her usual bluntness making him wince. "And that's a pity, because Xander and I spent so much time reading that afterwards, we were too tired to have sex!"

"I'm surprised you ever are too tired to have sex", Pat commented dryly in reply, forcing Willow to bite back a giggle while the ex-demon gave her an annoyed look; before she could answer anything though, Buffy spoke up, gaining the attention of everyone else in the room again. "I guess it comes as no surprise that I wasn't successful, either. So, basically, we have as much as when we started researching."

"Which is zero, zilch, null", Xander helpfully pointed out, shrugging when the Slayer gave him a sour look in reply. "What? It's true. Unless our G-Man here found something."

"Unfortunately, I didn't", Giles sighed in reply, giving Xander a strict look for the use of the unloved nickname, but not reprimanding him verbally for it, "so, you're right, we have zero information on this so far."

"I'll check in with headquarters again", Riley promised after a moment of silence, getting the book the Watcher had given to him out of the bag and handing it back; thanking him, Giles got up to put it back in the shelf where he belonged while Buffy changed the topic to a more lighter one by asking Riley what he had been doing since they last had met in Sunnydale, the soldier willingly telling her, the rest listening with more or less interest, until the Watcher declared that, if nothing new could be added to their discussions, the meeting should be ended so they all could get some rest and focus on the new materials for research he surely would dig up soon.


	8. Chapter 8

The moment they had entered their apartment, Willow practically kicked off her shoes and shrugged out of her jacket, then hurried into the living room and sat down at the large table, where her laptop was waiting for her; without wasting any time, she opened it up and switched it on, the demon raising an eyebrow when she came to join her half a minute later.

"You still feel like being research gal?" she then asked, sitting down on the couch next to the redhead, "because I surely don't, all that talking and reading today made my head woozy."

"I just don't get it", Willow mumbled in reply, her fingers already dancing over the keyboard and her gaze fixed on the screen, "this whole not-the-usual-horsemen thing…"

"So you'd rather face War, Famine, Pestilence and Death than mere elemental demons?" Pat grimaced, not sure what to think of this; while she waited for her girlfriend's answer, she dug out her cigarettes and lit one of them up, making herself comfortable afterward on the couch while Willow took her time with answering, finally doing so after a minute of sorting her thoughts.

"If I had the choice, I'd prefer it to face neither", she let the taller woman know, "but I guess that's out of the question, and of course I would prefer to go up against the easier group of four, but… It's so weird, you know? We've been through the apocalypse thing a few times by now, and each time, we found almost all the information we needed to stop it in Giles' books. The year Buffy came here, he even got a very detailed one about how she would be killed by the Master! And this time, we can't even find the tiniest hint? Something's not right here."

"Good point", the demon had to admit, despite her tiredness now getting curious as well and leaning forward so she could look at the screen of the witch's computer, squinting slightly as she did so.

"So", she then added after a moment, "you think Riley's research pals were wrong?"

"I don't know", the redhead gave back, still focused on the computer screen, "that's what I'll try to find out now… To be honest, I kinda hope they were, not because I'm keen on meeting the biblical four horsemen, but because we still have to keep the possibility in mind that, if Riley's research pals were right after all, you might end up being one of those four new ones."

"I still don't see why", the demon shrugged in reply, "but yeah, let's keep it in mind."

"Maybe I can come up with some way to prevent that during my research", Willow smiled, making the black haired woman nod; afterwards, she leaned in for a quick, but gentle kiss, then got up from her seat again and asked the redhead if she wanted a drink as well, making her nod in reply, her gaze glued to the computer monitor again. Smirking to herself, Pat made her way into the kitchen, opening the fridge and getting a can of coke for Willow and one of beer for herself, thirsting for some of the stuff after she had spent most of the day reading – and the rest with being angry about Willow's obnoxious professor; quickly, she opened the can and took a long drag of it, then returned to the living room so she could give her girlfriend her drink, receiving an absent-mindedly mumbled "Thanks" in reply.

Amused by how deeply the redhead was focused on her research already, after just being alone for not even a minute, Pat sat down next to her again and grabbed the remote for the TV, switching it on; every now and then, she'd glance at the computer screen of her loved one while she zapped through the channels, after a while finding something which at least interested her enough to keep her occupied while Willow was busy with her research, the redhead soon not even noticing her presence anymore as she became engrossed in her work.

* * *

><p>Two hours later, the frustrated sound Willow let out, combined with the noise her laptop made as she shut it off and closed it, made it obvious to Pat that her girlfriend had found nothing new; still, she looked at the witch, sounding sympathetic when she spoke up. "Nothing?"<p>

"Nothing", Willow confirmed, throwing the laptop an angry glare, as if it was the machine's fault that she hadn't been able to find anything, "nowhere on the whole damn internet. I sent an email to the coven though, you know, the one in England, maybe they'll have some information…"

"I doubt it", the demon muttered in reply, taking a sip of her drink afterwards, shrugging once she had gulped it down and noticed the surprised look the redhead was giving her.

"Giles has nothing", she started her explanation, putting down her soda can so she could tick off her points on her fingers, "the internet has nothing – the whole damn internet, as you said so poetically, and even Riley himself, who came here with that whole creepy story, has nothing else but that tiny little notebook he brought along. So, honestly, I'd be surprised if the coven had anything, I mean, usually, you find _everything_ in our favourite Watcher's collection. As you said yourself, as well."

"You're right", Willow mumbled, frowning to herself as she pondered this; it was highly unusual that not even Giles had any information on this, whereas normally, they found literally everything amongst his books, even the most obscure and rare demons.

"I wonder if he contacted the Watcher's Council", she mused out loud, her loved one earning another surprised look from her a moment later when she let out a snort at those words. "Those guys? They wouldn't be able to find their ass with both hands and a flashlight. Since it's Giles we are talking about though, I'm pretty sure he did that already."

"Probably", Willow had to admit after a moment, giving her girlfriend a curious look afterwards, the reason for this being made clear when she spoke on. "How come you know about the… competence of the Watcher's Council? You've had to deal with them before?"

"Um, yeah", the demon admitted after a second, all at once clearly uncomfortable and obviously wishing she hadn't made that comment, "a few decades ago. Four or five, dunno."

The way her mood suddenly had switched from comfortable to the exact opposite made it more than obvious to why exactly she had dealt with the Council so many years ago to Willow, and thus, the witch didn't ask any further questions; even though they had been together for a long time now, the thought that the woman she was sharing her life with had been hired to kill before they had met, would have killed her as well, if her feelings hadn't come in the way, still made her uneasy, and she preferred not to be reminded of that particular fact.

"Better don't mention that to Giles", she advised, smiling slightly to show that she was okay with the thoughts the remark had brought up in her mind, "he got used to you being a demon by now, but I doubt he'd like it to be reminded of your colourful past."

"I guess so", the demon had to admit, then more or less subtly changed the topic by asking if she was up to have dinner now, the grumble which came from the redhead in reply making any verbal answer unnecessary; chuckling, Pat got up from the couch without another word, prompting Willow to do the same, the two making their way into the kitchen together to figure out what they'd eat, the discomfort the words of the black haired woman had brought up fading away again as they prepared their meal together, once more enjoying it to share such a normal, mundane task with each other.

* * *

><p>The next day was Saturday, so technically, there wasn't any need for Willow to get up early; the fact that, shortly after eight a.m., the phone started to ring annoyingly loud, made any plans she might have had about sleeping in obsolete, the witch grumbling to herself while she forced herself out of bed and moved over to the phone, the soft snoring which came from the still deeply slumbering Pat showing her that her lover clearly was undisturbed by the noise.<p>

Briefly, she wished for a sleep as soundly as the demon's, then shrugged it off and told herself that it probably was important while she snatched up the phone and pressed the button which took the call, still not sounding all too friendly though when she held the receiver to her ear moments later.

"Hello!" she snapped, letting her irritation about this early morning call show despite the knowledge that probably, it would be important; if Buffy was offended by this greeting, she kept the emotion out of her voice when she replied, the urgency making the redhead obey her at once, without questioning her. "Turn on the TV, now."

Giving her best to be quiet, since she didn't want to wake up her girlfriend, she hurried into the living room, making sure to close the bedroom door behind herself before she grabbed the remote and switched on the TV, quickly finding the channel which was showing the local news; a few seconds later, she was glad that the couch was standing right behind her, since all feelings went out of her legs and she slumped backwards, thanks to the piece of furniture not ending up on the ground.

"Oh, God", she brought out after staring at the screen in silent horror for almost a full minute; on her end of the line, Buffy remained quiet, figuring that her best friend would need another moment to regain her composure, the witch showing that she had done so another half a minute later by asking if the Slayer knew who had done this.

"No", the blonde immediately replied, to Willow's great dismay, "but it must have been done quietly, I was at patrol while I guess it happened, and noticed nothing…"

"Did you tell anyone else about this…?" the redhead wanted to know, not surprised when Buffy declined – seeing her connection to the events of last night, it was just logical that she'd be the first to hear about this.

"I'll do that now", the Slayer added, "so Giles will probably want to hold a meeting and talk about it. As if that stuff about the apocalypse wasn't enough… Can you make it to the Magic Box at ten?"

"Yeah", Willow gave back, still feeling numb as she stared at the TV, hardly able to believe her eyes, "we'll be there… See you then…"

"See you", Buffy replied, almost as an afterthought adding some comforting words about how Willow shouldn't let this bother her too much; after mumbling a vague agreement, the redhead said her goodbye and ended the call, staring at the TV again afterwards, her mind racing.

Behind her, she heard the bedroom door open, followed by a rather loud yawn of her girlfriend; briefly, she wondered if she had made too much noise after all or if it had been her simple absence from the bed which had made the taller woman wake up, then all her attention was captured by the TV again, as if she could alter the images it was showing her by just staring at them hard enough.

"Is there a good reason for why you're awake so early?" Pat mumbled while she made her way to the couch, surprisingly coherent, considering the fact that she just had gotten out of bed; finally managing to tear her gaze away from the TV, Willow looked up at her, the expression on her face being enough to startle the demon into being fully awake within seconds.

"What is it?" she asked, clearly alarmed, sitting down next to the witch; in response, Willow gestured at the TV, making the taller woman look at it, the clueless expression on her face making it clear though that she had no idea what was going on. It was quite obvious that once more, something gruesome had happened in Sunnydale, but that normally wasn't a reason for Willow to get that upset – after all, they were in Sunnydale, on top of the Hellmouth, and more or less gruesome things happened there on a more or less regular basis.

"That's my professor", the witch explained after another second of sorting her thoughts, her voice trembling slightly. "He's dead…"


	9. Chapter 9

"Dead", the demon echoed, slightly surprised now, her gaze focusing on the TV as well; the picture they showed of last night's murder victim meant nothing to her, since she never had seen the man who had molested her girlfriend, but he did look like a professor, smiling into the camera innocently.

"He was murdered", Willow went on, staring at the TV again as well, swallowing heavily afterwards. "Right there in his house…"

"So it wasn't a vampire, unless he was stupid enough to invite them in", Pat muttered, finding her cigarettes on the table and lighting one of them up; next to her, Willow nodded her agreement, then looked at her girlfriend, remembering what Buffy had told her about the meeting in two hours, the black haired woman nodding as well when she was informed about it.

"We definitely should to be there", she then stated, "this could be connected to the whole apocalypse thing after all. And even if it's not, well, just one more thing we'll have to deal with then, unless some regular person murdered him, then it wouldn't really be any of our business."

"It probably wasn't", Willow sighed out in reply, giving her loved one another miserable look. "Strangely, this hardly seems to happen in Sunnydale. Usually, demons or vampires are the ones to blame."

"Not surprising, seeing there's a Hellmouth right beneath the town", Pat shrugged, then got up from her seat, asking if they still had time for coffee; Willow nodded again at that, then switched off the TV before she got up as well, making her way into the kitchen with her girlfriend, her mind still fully occupied by what she had seen on TV and the possibility that it was connected to the threatening apocalypse.

* * *

><p>When they arrived at Giles' apartment ninety minutes later, everyone else was already there, even Xander and Anya, to the obvious surprise of both Willow and Pat – normally, those two were the last ones to arrive, something the rest of the gang had gotten used to by now. This time though, the witch and the demon were the ones who arrived last; even Riley was already there, sitting on the couch, regarding Pat with a cold look which surprised her, since she had been quite sure that they had sorted out their differences the day before.<p>

"Willow, Pat", Giles greeted them, gesturing at the large armchair which was the only remaining free seat, save for the one he always used himself; after waving a general greeting to the others, the demon sat down, Willow placing herself on the taller woman's lap without hesitation, figuring that this was much better than standing.

"So", Buffy was the one who started the talk about business after her Watcher had offered everyone some tea and no one had wanted any, not really surprising him, "you all know why we are here, right?"

"Willow's professor with the eager hands was killed", Anya shrugged, clearly not all too troubled, "anything else?"

"…no", the Slayer gave back after a moment, briefly wondering if she'd ever get used to the ex-demon's bluntness; then, she shrugged it off, her gaze wandering from one member of the Scooby Gang to the next as she spoke on, her voice dead serious. "We don't know yet if this is connected to the horsemen and apocalypse thing, but I dare to guess that it is. As always, there wasn't much on the news, but if we could get a glimpse at the police's files…"

With those words, she looked at Willow, the redhead nodding immediately and, with a bit more reluctance, getting up from her comfortable seat, briefly regretting that she hadn't brought her computer; Giles had gotten one a while ago, for easier access to the scans they had made of his more valuable, older books, but hers was much faster than the one the Watcher was using.

"Give me five minutes", she still stated, making her way to the table moments later; it didn't take long until the computer had finished booting and she had connected to the internet, her fingers moving over the keyboard quickly and confidently – hacking into the files of the police was something she had done a hundred times before, and apparently, she never had been noticed, since so far, they hadn't bothered to make their data more secure.

"I'm in", she thus let her friends know a short time later, briefly smiling at her girlfriend when the demon checked her watch and let her know that it had been just two minutes and thirty-three seconds, a new record.

"Alright, I got the file", she added after another minute, prompting Buffy to move up to her side, both of them looking at the screen now, the Slayer frowning slightly when she read what had been written in the file.

"No forceful entrance into his house", the witch read out loud, so the others would be informed about the file's contents as well, "no signs of a fight… And he was killed with a crossbow. One shot, straight between the eyes, going right into the brain, bang, he's dead."

"So it was someone he knew?" Xander guessed, making everyone else look at him, the attention making him go on after a moment. "I mean, he must have let the person in, right? And I wouldn't let someone carrying a big honking crossbow into my house unless I know them really, really well. As in best friend, or girlfriend."

"Good point Sweetie, well done!" Anya congratulated her boyfriend in reply, making him smile proudly, the smile vanishing from his face moments later though when Riley spoke up, the soldier's gaze focused on Pat, his voice once more full of contempt. "Or someone killed him who knows how to do that."

"What?" the demon gave back, sounding so surprised that it would have been comical, had the circumstances been different; she sat up straight in her seat, staring at the young man, her voice full of disbelief when she spoke on. "What are you trying to imply?"

"You know damn well what I'm implying", Riley spat as an answer, glaring at the black haired woman before he looked at Buffy, his tone still dripping with acid. "You really believe she's got nothing to do with this?"

"I don't", the demon snapped, her surprise turning into anger, something which showed quite clearly through the glare she was giving the soldier now.

"Oh please", Riley snarled contemptuously, "and you want me to believe that? You punched me for calling Willow stupid, and this guy actually molested and threatened her. You really wanna tell me you wouldn't kill him for that? After attacking me for a simple remark?"

"She was with me all night!" Willow threw in before the demon could reply anything to that, giving the soldier an annoyed look as well, "and how dare you accuse her of doing that, with no proof and nothing?"

"She's a demon", Riley snapped back at her, ignoring it when said demon started to growl lowly in the back of her throat, "this is how they are! Something's bothering them, they kill it, end of story. I know what I'm talking about."

"If I killed everyone who's bothering me, you'd be dead by now", Pat helpfully informed him, realizing a moment too late that this probably hadn't been the smartest thing to say; before Riley could react to that though, Buffy spoke up, to the soldier's clear dismay taking the demon's side as well.

"Riley, this is ridiculous", she sternly told him, making both Willow and Pat nod their agreement heartily. "There is no reason to believe that Pat did that, you only think so because she's a demon! It's still 'Demons bad, humans good' for you? I thought you got over that after the whole thing with the Initiative and Oz!"

"Demons are evil, period", the soldier gave back, unimpressed by the Slayer's words, "you of all people should know! Or do you want to tell me she turned good just because she's shagging Willow?"

"That's enough!" Giles barked with a loudness and fierceness that surprised everyone, obviously even Riley; clearly agitated, the Watcher got up from his seat and moved up to the soldier, staring down on him after almost tearing his glasses off his face, the look on his face being angry enough to make the younger man obviously uneasy.

"I will not tolerate such behaviour here", Giles told him, his voice now cold. "No matter what you think about it, Pat's one of us, we trust her, and we have no reason to believe that she is involved in this. If Willow says that they were together all night, that's how it is and end of discussion!"

"Wow, fierce Giles", the redhead whispered to Buffy, looking at the Watcher in awe, "it's been a while since we've seen that."

"And am I glad that it's not aimed at me", the Slayer whispered back, her eyes never leaving her irritated Watcher.

"Fine", Riley spat after a moment of just staring at the Brit, "if you think so, then I can't work with you. Have fun going up against those horsemen alone."

"We'll deal", Pat smugly replied, clearly pleased by how both Buffy and Giles had stood up for her, even though she would have preferred to settle this with Riley herself, "don't forget, we dealt with the Devil before. Horsemen? Piece of cake."

"Maybe one of them can take your other eye", Riley smirked at her nastily, getting up from his seat; with a snarl, the demon started to do the same as well, but before she could even get up fully, Giles had put his hand on her shoulder, one look of him being enough to make her sit back down.

For a moment, the soldier looked as if he wanted to let out another not so friendly remark; then, he just shook his head and, after another annoyed glance at Buffy, walked off and left the house, the door falling close behind him moments later, the rest looking after him in silence, all of them wondering in perfect unison if now, he had walked out of their lives as well.

* * *

><p>"What a dick", Pat was the first one to speak up after a full minute had ticked by in uncomfortable silence; on the couch, Xander let out a snort as he tried to hold back his laughter, biting his tongue a moment later when the demon looked at Buffy and continued. "You <em>really<em> dated that jerk? I find that harder and harder to believe every time I see him."

"He wasn't that much of a jerk back then", Buffy defended her relationship choices in reply, "well, he wasn't most of the time. When he wasn't whining about me being stronger than him, he was really nice and everything."

"That behaviour was weird even for him", Willow added, shaking her head as she thought about the soldier's words once more. "I mean, what was he thinking? Just accusing Pat of doing this, when there are, like, a hundred other demons in this town who are much more evil than her!"

"I'm not evil at all", the demon found it necessary to point out, making the witch smile at her and reassure that she knew that; then, she looked at the computer monitor again briefly before she focused on Buffy once more. "Need anything else from that file?"

"I don't think so", the Slayer shrugged, still leaning down though to look at the screen as well and scrolling down the pages of said file, "it seems there's nothing else interesting in… oh. Scratch that."

Frowning, she bent even closer to the screen, prompting Willow to do the same; after a minute of just staring, the Slayer looked up again at last, her gaze focusing on the demon.

"You're the one of us who killed the most people", she stated, making Pat fidget in her seat a bit uncomfortably – usually, her bloody past was a topic no one of the gang ever addressed much, all of them knowing that technically, the things she had done before becoming one of the gang would be more than enough to put her on Buffy's to do list as well, successfully ignoring this though, along with the fact that she had killed dozens, if not hundreds, of people.

"Uh-huh", she still mumbled an agreement, wondering where this was leading, a question which, to her dismay, wasn't really answered when Buffy went on, her words prompting the taller woman to raise an eyebrow. "With crossbows as well, yes?"

"Yeah, sure", Pat shrugged, "several times. Why?"

"Well…" Buffy replied, "you know, I've shot demons several times as well, but… they never bled out completely. Did the people you shot?"

"Um, no", the demon gave back, scratching the back of her head as she wondered once more where this talk was supposed to lead, "I don't think that's even possible. They usually died quickly, and once you're dead, the blood stops pumping and so, after a while, also flowing. Why?"

"Well, either he took a long, long time to die", the Slayer finally gave the reason for her strange questions, "or someone stayed with him for a while after he did and bled him dry. It says here that there wasn't a drop of blood left inside him."

"Oh", Pat replied, not all too smart, as she had to admit, "so was it spread all over the room then? Or what?"

"No, it was gone", Willow was the one to answer that question, frowning as well now, "but there's no mentioning of any neck wounds or something… Just the bolt which killed him."

"So someone took the blood", Anya concluded, "but how? If there's only the bolt wound?"

"Magic, I guess", Willow mumbled, fully focused on the file again, "so it seems as if that's connected to the upcoming apocalypse after all…"

"But how?" Xander wanted to know, frowning, "I mean, yeah I get the whole sacrifice thing, and we all know that for some reason, the things you sacrifice to are really keen on blood, but why would you need blood to make that happen?"

"There was nothing about that in Riley's notebook", Giles shrugged when everyone looked at him, clearly expecting him to know the answer, "in fact, there was remarkably little information about the conditions which need to be fulfilled for those horsemen to appear. I suppose you are right though, Willow, and that the blood was needed for a sacrifice…"

"Something's off here", Pat thoughtfully mumbled, not even noticing how everyone looked at her, frowning to herself as she clearly tried to figure something out; she fidgeted on her seat for a moment, then finally looked up, her gaze meeting Buffy's.

"This is just too perfect", she went on, "I mean, how many people are living here in Sunnydale? Thirty-eight-thousand, give or take? And they decide to kill him, the one who was on our radar anyway for what he did to Willow? Too much of a coincidence, if you ask me."

"You have a point", Giles agreed, "but why would the person who did this target this man specifically?"

"To put the blame on Pat, of course", Buffy was the one to answer, now sounding thoughtful as well, even beginning to pace the room while she spoke on. "I mean, think about it… As Willow said, there are so many demons in town, and still Riley was sure that she did it. And he tried to convince us of that, as well."

"He should work on his convincing skills", Xander smirked, "because I didn't buy it for a second."

"I appreciate your trust", Pat dryly gave back, "but I don't like the direction my thoughts are taking when I think about this further. Think he tried to, I dunno, to make you guys kick me out of the group because you'd suspect I did that? Why would he want that?"

"I don't know", Buffy had to admit, clearly saying what everyone else was thinking, "so I'd say we ask him. As you said, something's off here, and I think he'll have some answers."

"Let's go then", the demon decided, coming to her feet; after a moment, the rest nodded and did the same, and a minute later, they left the house together, setting off to the soldier's place.


	10. Chapter 10

Even though Buffy had been hoping that they'd get some answers there, she wasn't really surprised when they found the small house empty; it wasn't just Riley who was gone though, but the few things he had taken with him as well, the house looking again as if no one had been living in it for years, the only sign that someone had been staying there for a while being the empty pizza carton in the trash and the used dishes in the sink.

"Didn't even have time to clean up", Pat commented as she peered in said sink, "soldier boy left in a hurry."

"He must have known we'd come here", Buffy sighed, clearly dismayed by her ex-boyfriend's hurried exit, "and that we'd ask him some rather unpleasant questions…"

"This is getting fishier and fishier", Xander stated while Anya and Willow started wandering through the living room, looking at the empty shelves and opening equally empty drawers; after a moment, Buffy began moving as well, making her way into the bedroom, suddenly eager to find at least something which might help them to figure out what was going on.

Quickly, she started searching through the drawers and cupboards, without any success though; even though Riley obviously had left in a hurry, he had managed to pack up everything he had brought along, not even living a single sock or something similar behind. Sighing to herself, the Slayer gave up her search after a few unsuccessful minutes; just when she turned to leave and rejoin her friends though, something white close to the narrow bed caught her attention, and she stopped dead in her tracks, her brow furrowing again before she moved over and bent down, identifying the object which had caught her eye as a piece of paper.

Curiously, she picked it up, giving it a closer look; a second later, her eyes went wide, and she hurried back to join her friends, making her way straight to Giles, the urgency in her voice when she addressed him making everyone else stop what they were doing and look at her. "Giles, the notebook Riley gave you… Do you have it with you?"

"Yes", the Watcher gave back, not asking any questions, but simply reaching into the inner pocket of his jacket and pulling the notebook out; he handed it to Buffy, the blonde opening it on a random page and holding the piece of paper up right next to it, letting her breath out audibly moments later.

"I knew it", she then muttered, prompting everyone else to move up to her; curiously, Willow spied over her shoulder, a gasp escaping her when she saw at once what Buffy had discovered.

"Where did you find this?" she then demanded to know, gesturing at the piece of paper; quickly, Buffy told her, then handed both the notebook and the paper to Giles before she turned to look at her friends, her voice serious when she spoke on. "The handwriting's the same. So, either one of Riley's research pals was here and left that paper in the bedroom, or Riley wrote the stuff in the notebook himself."

"The second option is more likely", Giles stated the obvious, looking at the notebook and the piece of paper the Slayer had found; it didn't say anything interesting, but there was enough handwriting on it to allow a proper comparison and to show him that Buffy was right.

"So he made that whole thing up?" Pat wanted to know, frowning. "Why would he do that?"

"I'd love to ask him that", Buffy muttered while her Watcher tucked the notebook and the piece of paper into his pocket again, "but, well, he's gone."

"Maybe we should ask his bosses", Anya suggested, "they should know where he is, right? He has to report to them?"

"He has to", Buffy agreed, "but it's not like we can just call them, you know? They're not in the phone book or anything, so…"

"Oh!" Willow suddenly perked up, making all eyes move from Buffy to her, "we can't just call his bosses, but I have the number of his wife! She gave it to me before they left when they were here the last time! Maybe she'll know something."

With those words, she already dug out her cell phone and quickly went through the included phonebook, until she had found the number of Riley's wife; giving the others a thumbs up, she pushed the button which started the call, then held the phone to her ear, repeating her victorious gesture from before when the beeping signalled that the line was free. After the third beep, a click came through the line, then the voice of Riley's wife came up, sounding as chipper and cheerful as she had when they had met her for the first time. "Yes, Sam here, hello?"

"Hi, this is Willow", the redhead introduced herself, for a moment wondering if the other woman would still remember her, that question being answered immediately since Sam greeted her rather enthusiastically and happily. "Oh, Willow, hey! It's been ages since I've heard of you, how are you?"

"Fine", the witch gave back, then momentarily fell silent as she searched for the right words – before she decided to be blunt, giving her best to still sound friendly though. "Um, you don't happen to know where Riley is, right?" she asked, frowning when in reply, the sharp intake of breath could be heard through the line; when Sam replied after another moment, her voice sounded strained, as if she was holding herself back from shouting – or maybe crying, or both.

"No, I don't", she let the redhead know, "we're not… we had a divorce last year."

"Oh", Willow gave back, a bit taken aback, wondering why the soldier hadn't mentioned this. "So you're no longer in contact?" she went on after a moment, her words making Buffy raise an eyebrow, "did you get moved to a different squad, or however you call your little troops there?"

"No", Sam replied after being quiet just long enough to let Willow notice, "he got moved. Well, in fact, he got kicked out. He hasn't been with the military for the last eight months."

* * *

><p>"Oh", was all Willow could say after almost thirty seconds had ticked by in silence and Sam had asked her if she was still there, the other woman's voice snapping her out of her trance, "well… I see… Thank you, then…"<p>

"Why do you ask?" Sam now wanted to know, sounding a bit more relaxed; quickly, the redhead told her that there was no special reason, then let her know that she had to go, but that she'd call again soon to keep in touch before she said goodbye and hung up, looking at her friends afterwards.

"So?" Buffy was the first one to speak up when the witch didn't immediately say anything, "what did she say?"

"Well, if she told the truth, then Riley lied to us", Willow finally regained her ability to speak, the way both Buffy and Pat raised an eyebrow in perfect unison making it clear to her that she hadn't really given them proper information; clearing her throat, she took in a deep breath, then went on, her voice trembling just the tiniest bit as she realized what this might mean. "She said that Riley and she got a divorce and that… he's out of the military. Since eight months."

"What?" Buffy nearly cried out, her eyes doubling in size, "but… how is this possible? He came with the helicopter and everything, and all the gear…!"

"Helicopters can be rented", Giles pointed out to her, rather glum, "and gear can be stolen. If his wife… or ex-wife… told us the truth…"

"I don't see why she should lie to me", Willow mumbled, looking down on the phone again as if it could give her some answers; sensing her dismay about the whole situation, Pat moved closer to her and put one arm around her, making her glance up at her again, a weak smile curling her lips before she snuggled up to the taller woman.

"Me neither", Buffy now agreed with her best friend, after briefly smiling at the cute sight of the couple, "plus, we already know he wrote that notebook himself, so he already lied about that…"

"So, what do you think", Xander piped up, gesturing at Giles since he was the one who had said notebook, "how much of the stuff in there is true?"

"I have no idea", the Watcher gave back, clearly feeling as the one who had been asked, even though Xander had been looking at Buffy, "but since 'our favourite demon', as you like to call her, is still here with us and doesn't show signs of wanting to get on a horse and end the world, I guess we can safely say that at least this part was made up."

"The only thing I'd end on horseback would be the image of elegance and grace I have", Pat smirked in reply, "I'm no good with horses. Never have been."

"Well, now we know that Riley is a filthy liar", Anya brought the talk away from Pat's possible elegance and grace and back to the topic at hand, "but we still don't know where he is. What do we do now?"

"Hate to admit it, but I have no idea", Buffy almost grumbled in response, "now, it won't even make sense anymore to try and contact the military guys about him, if he's not with them anymore…"

"Filthy liar", Anya repeated for emphasis, making the others nod; then, they just stood there in silence, looking at each other as they tried to figure out what to do now, all of them to their dismay having to admit though that once more, they were at a dead end.

* * *

><p>"This still doesn't make any sense", Pat informed Willow an hour later, back at their apartment; in response, the redhead looked up questioningly, the expression prompting her girlfriend to go on – after she had lit up a cigarette and had made herself comfortable on the couch. "Why would he go through all that trouble? Write up a notebook with fake shit about elemental demonic horsemen, hire a chopper, a house, all that crap? Maybe even kill the molesting professor guy? It makes no sense. What's the results he wanted to achieve?"<p>

"No idea", Willow gave back, her gaze focusing on her laptop again as she checked her email; her eyes lit up briefly when she saw that she had received an answer from the coven, only to dim again when she read it, a small sigh escaping her.

"They never heard of the elemental demon thing either", she then informed her girlfriend, shaking her head to herself, "not that I'm surprised. But, as you said, it doesn't make sense."

"Unless he knew", Pat gave back after a moment of thinking about this, taking another drag of her cigarette before she spoke on, the witch's eyes going wide at her lover's words. "About me, I mean. What if he only faked his outrage about that to fulfil the expectations you all surely had, and already knew? And just made up that crap about the elemental demons to keep us busy with that, while he does something else? Whatever that might be. He must have known that you'd be worried I'll be one of those made-up horsemen…"

"But how would he know?" Willow demanded to know, frowning as she thought of this – and of the unpleasant implications it had, remembering once more how quickly Riley had been convinced by her that Pat could be trusted and how fast he had been to accuse her for the murder of the professor.

"Well, he has been in Sunnydale for a while", the demon shrugged in reply, "maybe he's still got some contacts around here. Who knows, maybe he's been keeping tabs on you guys ever since he left."

"I don't like that thought", Willow muttered, "but you might be right… We should tell Buffy about this, and see what she thinks. I'll do that tomorrow at the campus…"

"Good idea", Pat agreed, "I'm curious what she'll say about my little theory. I know it sounds very conspiracy-theorist-like, but I have some kind of gut feeling that I'm not too far from the truth."

"We share that gut feeling then", Willow gave back, smiling a moment later, a twinkle in her eyes as she spoke on. "Or maybe, I'm just hungry. Let's go make some food?"

"Sounds like a plan to me", the demon smirked, finishing her cigarette and getting up from the couch; doing the same, Willow grasped her hand before they made their way into the kitchen together, quickly finding the ingredients for a proper meal there, successfully pushing aside their thoughts and worries about Riley and the lies he had told them.


	11. Chapter 11

In the next morning, Willow had to get up early, since she had her first class at eight a.m.; as always when her girlfriend left her side so early, Pat remained where she was, not even waking up, but snoring softly as she laid spread on her back, the witch briefly smiling at the sight before she left the bedroom and made her way into the adjoined bathroom for her morning hygiene.

Even though she felt a bit bad about it, she was a bit relieved about the fact that the professor who had molested and threatened her wouldn't come to the college anymore; of course she didn't think that he had deserved what had happened to him, but still she couldn't stop herself from feeling at least a tiny bit glad about it, since it had made sure that she wouldn't need to deal with him any longer and that he never would molest anyone else again. Briefly, she wondered how often he had done this before, how many women had been forced to bear with his eager hands; she was convinced that she hadn't been the first one who had been a victim of that, even though the Dean had appeared as if this had never been brought to his attention before when she had told him about the incident.

Shrugging those thoughts off by telling herself that now, it didn't really matter anymore, Willow focused on her morning routine again; it didn't take long until she was done, a smile curling her lips again when she re-entered the bedroom and saw her girlfriend still fast asleep, undisturbed by the noises she had made in the bathroom. As quietly as possible, the witch quickly chose her clothing for the day, then moved to the bed after she had gotten dressed; tenderly, since she didn't want to wake the slumbering demon up, she moved a strand of hair out of her face, then bent down to kiss her on the cheek, smiling slightly again when Pat let out a noise which sounded like an approving grunt in reply.

"See you later", she whispered to the taller woman, earning another grunt; holding back a giggle, the redhead straightened up and left the bedroom, stepping out of the apartment as well two minutes later, humming softly to herself while she made her way to the elevator.

Only now, with the small, but serious threat the professor had provided gone, she realized how much this had weighed on her mind; now that he wasn't around anymore, Willow looked forward to college again as much as she had before the incident, and she smiled to herself as she thought of the classes she'd have that day, especially looking forward to those she'd share with Buffy.

As she made her way to the bus stop, she almost started skipping, all at once feeling giddy; giving her best to hold that peculiar urge back, since she didn't want to attract any unwanted attention by people who might wonder about her mental state, the witch forced herself to walk there normally, reaching the bus stop just as the bus was driving around the corner. Silently congratulating herself on her timing, she got on the vehicle once it had stopped in front of her; even though it wasn't far to the campus, only a ten minute ride, she sat down, checking her book bag once more to make sure she had everything she needed for the day with her, not minding the fact that, if she'd notice now, it'd be too late anyway.

When she had gone through the books for the day and was sure that she had them all with her, she leaned back into the seat and looked out of the window until the bus arrived at the campus; already before the vehicle even came to a stop, she could already see Buffy waiting for her, a smile forming on her face again at the sight of her best friend.

"Hey Buffy!" she greeted as she almost jumped out of the bus, the Slayer returning the greeting before she somehow managed to smile and raise an eyebrow at the same time, giving the witch a quizzical look.

"You seem to be in a good mood today", she then observed, "how come? Any special reason?"

"Not really", Willow gave back, slinging her book bag over her shoulder and giving the blonde next to her another happy smile, "well, a tiny one, and it makes me sound like a horrible person, but…"

"I doubt that", Buffy smirked while they started to walk away from the bus stop and towards the building where the lecture hall for their first class was located, "but tell me anyway so I can decide for sure."

After taking in a deep breath, Willow did so, hoping that the Slayer wouldn't judge her for feeling relieved about the fact that someone was dead; to her relief, she didn't, but merely nodded, smiling at the witch again afterwards, briefly touching her arm afterwards, her voice kind when she replied. "That doesn't make you a horrible person, I understand you, to be honest, even though Giles would probably throw a fit if he heard me say that. So, let's not say that in front of him, alright?"

"Of course not", Willow quickly reassured her in reply, shuddering theatrically, the sight making Buffy laugh; after a moment, the witch started giggling as well, the two friends beaming at each other as they made their way to the lecture hall, both of them enjoying each other's company and looking forward to the class they soon would attend together.

* * *

><p>After the first class, Buffy and Willow shared their second one as well, then had to split ways; they had agreed on meeting for lunch though, and another three classes later, they did just that, deciding to sit outside on the grass instead of in the cafeteria, figuring that the weather was too nice to spend the lunch hour inside.<p>

"I talked to Giles yesterday", the Slayer informed her best friend once they had made themselves comfortable on one of the many lawns of the campus, "after the whole thing with discovering Riley had lied to us the whole time. He still doesn't know what's going on, but by now, he's pretty sure that dear Riley tried to distract us from something and only wanted to keep us busy with researching that four horsemen crap while he worked on whatever it was he came here for."

"So, he either got done with whatever that was or left when he realized his tries to distract us went down the drain when he accused Pat?" Willow guessed, frowning to herself as another realization hit her the moment she had finished her sentence.

"Wait", she thus stated before Buffy could reply anything, "I still don't get it why he was railing against her so much. Yeah, the demon thing probably didn't help, but the way he immediately blamed her for the murder of that professor? That was far-fetched even for him."

"I'd love to know why he did that", the Slayer sighed in reply, "because, well, you're right, that was a rather senseless conclusion, even for him with his black-and-white worldview. I doubt we'll have a chance to ask him though, if there's one thing he learned from the military, it's how not to be found if he doesn't want to be found."

"Well", Willow shrugged after a moment, "I know it's unlikely to happen, but maybe, we'll get off easier for once and he just left."

"That'd be a nice change", Buffy smirked, "but I doubt it, that'd just be too easy, and by now, we know that things are never easy for the Slayer…"

As if those words had been some sort of cue, the day around them suddenly darkened noticeably; the shadows grew longer, the startled noises coming from the students around them making it clear that no one had been anticipating this.

"What's going on?" Willow demanded to know, worried; obviously as clueless as her best friend, Buffy shrugged, then looked up, squinting, only to have her eyes go wide a moment later.

"Look", she then brought out, sounding stunned; now seriously concerned, since that tone in the blonde's voice never meant anything good, Willow did as she had been told, glancing up as well, her eyes widening just like Buffy's when she saw how the sun was darkening with alarming speed, eclipsed by a perfectly circular sphere.

"There's no eclipse scheduled for today, is there", Buffy stated matter-of-factly, not surprised when the witch shook her head; they exchanged a short glance, then both came to their feet, well aware of the fact that, in a town like Sunnydale, eclipses never meant anything good.

"What do we do?" Willow demanded to know the second they had come to her feet and started to hurry towards the campus gate, "go to Giles?"

"Good idea", Buffy agreed, realizing that despite the sense of urgency which had filled her, she had no idea of what she should do now, "he'll be able to figure something out… Or maybe he'll even know what this is about…"

Since by now, the Slayer was almost running, all Willow did in reply was nod her head, too busy to keep up and with breathing as she hurried along next to her best friend; the day around them kept getting darker as the sun was eclipsed further and further, until it was fully covered, turning the formerly bright and sunny day into something which more resembled the time shortly after sundown.

"This is bad", Buffy stated the obvious, nervously glancing up at the sky every now and then while she hurried down the street with the redhead right next to her; again, Willow could only nod, her breath by now coming with short, strained gasps, briefly making her wonder if she really had gone out of shape so much – or if Buffy was using Slayer speed, something which wouldn't have been very considerate of her.

Before she could ask the Slayer about that though, and maybe also ask her to slow down at least a bit, maybe with pointing out her high heels so she wouldn't appear to have a lousy constitution, but before she could do so, a sound came up behind them which made her blood run cold and turned her leg muscles into jelly, suddenly making it hard for her to stay on her feet at all.

"This is really bad", Buffy brought out next to her, sounding just as shocked as she felt; noticing that the Slayer had turned around, Willow did the same, already knowing what she would see, but dreading it nonetheless, her breath getting caught in her throat when her gaze fell on just what she had expected – four robed figures on horseback, galloping down the street, approaching them at high speed, trailing flames and smoke behind them, both Buffy and Willow just staring at them as they tried to cope with the sight, asking themselves if this meant the end of the world now – or there was a way to stop this before things were taken too far.

* * *

><p>Even though they had been planning to get to Giles' place for help, this plan was far from the minds of the two women as they ran through narrow side alleys, both of them imploringly hoping that said alleys would make it harder for the horsemen to follow them; so far, it seemed that this was working, but the sound of hoof beats never was far behind them, and even though her fear had given her an extra boost of strength, Willow knew that she wouldn't be able to keep this speed up for much longer, her breath already coming with heavy, almost pained gasps.<p>

"Buffy", she brought out between two gasps, knowing it wasn't smart to talk, but also well aware of the fact that she had to inform her best friend about her fading strength, "I can't… go on much longer…"

"Just keep it up a bit longer", the Slayer urged her on in reply, even grasping her arm to make sure she'd keep up, "once we're out of their sight, we can enter some building or something, they can't follow us there on their horses…"

"Don't know if I can keep it up longer", Willow panted, nearly stumbling, prompting the blonde to tighten her grip on her arm; somehow, the witch managed to stay on her feet, momentarily squeezing her eyes shut when Buffy and she emerged from the short alley and ended up on yet another broad street, the sound of the horses approaching growing louder and louder.

Just when the four horsemen rounded the corner though and caught sight of them again, a car came speeding down the road from the other end, stopping close to the two women with screeching tires; a great surge of relief welled up within the witch when she saw who was sitting behind the steering wheel.

"Get in, get in!" Pat urged, something the two already did while she even was still speaking; they both ended up on the backseat, since neither of them wanted to bother with running around the car so they could get on the passenger seat, and even before Buffy had pulled the door close properly again, the demon was already stepping down on the gas, steering the car into the next alley, one which was barely broad enough for the vehicle.

"Oh thank God you just arrived", Buffy panted, wiping sweat off her brow while next to her, Willow nervously looked out of the rear window, feeling a bit relieved when she saw that clearly, the horsemen hadn't followed them; either, they thought that the alley was too narrow for their massive horses, something which didn't make much sense since the car was much broader, or they had given up pursuit when the demon unexpectedly had come to the rescue.

"How come you knew where to find us?" the redhead demanded to know once she had reassured herself again that no robed figures on horseback where following them, turning in the seat again to look at the back of her girlfriend's head; shrugging, Pat kept her eye on the road as she drove through a maze of side alleys, clearly not sure yet that the horsemen had given up their pursuit, her voice still surprisingly calm when she replied. "I didn't, I was just lucky to find you. Not hard to follow the trail of those charming riders though, what with the smoke and the flames."

"Good point", Willow had to admit, still panting quite heavily after the uncomfortably long time she had spent running; thus, she decided to save her breath and fell quiet afterwards, giving the Slayer a chance to speak up. "But how did you know they were coming in the first place? And do you think it's a good idea to drive, with just one eye?"

"Well, I didn't crash so far, did I", the black haired woman gave back, a slightly sour tone in her voice, "and about knowing that they were coming, well, I didn't know exactly what it'd be, but that total eclipse which happened out of the blue? Never a good sign, especially not in a town like Sunnydale. So I figured I'd drive to campus and see if you're alright, and, voila, here we are."

"Good thing you figured that out", Buffy smiled, trying to make up for the slightly offensive comment she accidentally had made; briefly, she wondered if she should ask about the car's origins, since she knew that the vehicle the demon previously had owned had been crashed by Spike when he had taken it for a joyride and was well aware of the fact that Pat never had bought a new one, then shrugged it off, deciding that she probably didn't want to know.

"Where do you wanna go?" the black haired woman now wanted to know, tearing her out of her musings about possibly stolen cars, "to Giles' place?"

"Yeah", Willow finally had regained enough breath to speak, "and I think you can slow down a bit now, it seems that they stopped following us, plus you know I get nervous when you drive so fast, it makes me all queasy in the stomach…"

Realizing that she was babbling, the witch forced herself to shut up while the demon nodded, then slowed down a bit; still she was way over the speed limit as she kept driving through the streets of Sunnydale, until she parked the car in front of Giles' home a few minutes later.


	12. Chapter 12

"So, Riley was at least partly honest", the Watcher stated fifteen minutes later, cleaning his glasses with such fervour that all three women were worried he might crack one of the lenses any moment, "the four horsemen did indeed arrive."

"Yeah, but they looked more like the standard versions", Pat pointed out, "none of that elemental demon stuff he was trying to convince us about."

"I'm not sure if this is good or bad", Giles sighed as an answer, "but at least we know now that you won't be one of them, and that at least is good."

"Indeed", Willow immediately agreed, giving her girlfriend a loving smile afterwards which was returned at once; for a moment, Giles' lips curled upwards as well, then he regained his serious composure and cleared his throat, making everyone look at him again.

"I'm afraid we don't have much time", he said out loud what everyone else had been worrying about, "I'm not sure about how those horsemen will act, but I fear we can safely assume that they indeed come here to bring the apocalypse. The question is, how do we stop them?"

"I was hoping you'd have the answer for that", Buffy muttered in reply, momentarily disappointed; in reply, Giles shrugged helplessly, then gestured at the large bookshelf behind him, sounding regretful when he replied. "I wish I had, and maybe, I do as it is hidden in one of those books, but we don't have time to go through them and find out."

"Not really", the Slayer had to agree, not sure if she should be relieved about the fact that there was no time for research or worried about how little time they actually had to find a solution, "so what do we do? I doubt we can just go out there and fight them."

"No", the Watcher immediately shook his head, to Pat's obvious dismay, "that'd be suicide. There has to be another way…"

"Maybe I can do a spell", Willow suggested after a moment of pondering the elder man's words, "some sort of… I dunno, bring-em-down spell so Buffy and Pat can battle them. Is there such a thing?"

"If there is, I don't think we'll have enough time to search for it", Giles sighed, putting his glasses back on, the lenses miraculously whole, despite the rather harsh cleaning they had been given during the last few minutes.

"I'm at my wits' end", he added, stating something which was rather obvious; still, this was the first time they heard him admit this so freely, those unexpected and unusual words prompting the three women to exchange worried glances.

"Well, we have to do _something_", Pat was the one who broke the uncomfortable silence which had formed after the Watcher's last words, "we can't just sit around here and wait for them to end the world or something, right? I kinda like it the way it is now, namely largely intact."

"I never would have thought I'd hear a demon say this", Giles smiled weakly, in an attempt to lighten the mood a bit; it didn't really work the way he had intended it to though, the demon just giving him an annoyed look in reply.

"She's right though", Willow pointed out, sounding worried, the tone of her voice prompting Pat to grasp her hand and give it a reassuring squeeze, "we can't just wait for something to happen. Can't you remember some spell I could do, to send them to another dimension or something?"

"Not really", the Watcher had to admit, taking his glasses off again to gave them another unnecessary cleaning while Buffy got up from her seat and started pacing up and down, clearly quite worried by now.

"Are you sure we can't fight them?" she asked after just walking up and down for a few moments, her gaze focusing on Giles, "I mean, what else can we do? Maybe they didn't get done materializing fully yet or something and we can still harm them…"

"Well, the only way to find that out would be to attack them", the Watcher sighed in reply, "and if you are wrong and they can't be harmed, this, as I said before, would be suicide. I'm really trying to come up with something, but—"

The sound of hoof beats approaching cut him off, and his eyes went wide; opposite of him, Buffy stopped in mid-step while both Pat and Willow sat up straight with a synchronicity that would have been amusing, had the circumstances been different, the witch's grip on her girlfriend's hand tightening until it almost hurt.

"Seems that time for talking's been cut short", Buffy finally was the one to break the shocked silence, already moving to the chest of weapons Giles kept behind the couch and opening it. "Only one way to find out if we can fight them now…"

With those words, she removed a sword from the chest, weighing it critically before nodding to herself, evidently satisfied by the weight and balance; without a word, the demon got up from her seat and moved to the chest as well, not really surprising anyone when she chose an axe.

Once the chest had been snapped close again, Buffy and Pat exchanged a look, then the Slayer nodded – before the two, without a word, moved outside to meet the approaching horsemen, Giles and Willow following them after a moment, both of them giving their best to not let their fear show as they all stepped out of the house and walked up to the sidewalk where the Slayer and the demon raised their weapons, eager to give the horsemen the greeting they deserved.

* * *

><p>It didn't take long until the four robed figures on horseback had reached the house, stopping a few meters away from Buffy and Pat; while three of them regarded them from unseen eyes, their faces hidden by the hoods their robes were providing, the fourth one moved his horse forward, clearly intending to act as some sort of spokesperson for the small, but deadly group.<p>

"You wanna go one on one or something?" Buffy called out before the horseman could say something, briefly wondering which one it was – she knew that the group consisted of Death, War, Famine and Pestilence, but they all looked the same to her, and somehow, she'd been sure so far that their appearance would fit to their names, imagining Famine horribly thin and Pestilence looking like someone who should have died from various horrible sicknesses a while ago.

"No matter what you do", she went on, shrugging those thoughts off while the horseman in the front just kept looking at her – or so she presumed, since she couldn't see his face or his eyes, "we won't go down without a fight, no matter if all of you attack us or just one of you."

"Well, it would be my task to fight you", the horseman finally spoke, Buffy's eyes going wide at the sound of his voice, the sword falling out of her suddenly numb fingers and clattering to the sidewalk; clearly amused by her reaction, the horseman chuckled before he let go of the reins with both hands and reached up to move back his hood, exposing a face they all just knew too well.

"Surprised?" he asked, a sardonic tint in his voice now; in response, Buffy just kept staring at him, and it was Pat who answered him, her voice dry. "Honestly? Not really. You've been a giant jackass lately, Riley, so I'm not surprised that you're riding with those chums now."

"I'm hurt", the soldier gave back, not sounding as if he meant that though, "after we were becoming such great friends."

"Not in this lifetime", the demon replied, raising her sword slightly; this seemed to get Buffy out of her stupor as well, since she flinched visibly – before she brought her foot down hard on the pommel of her sword, effectively kicking it upwards and easily catching it.

"That it's you doesn't change anything", she then told Riley almost casually, managing to keep the slight tremble out of her voice. "We'll still fight you."

"Then you'll die", he gave back, clearly unimpressed by her courage. "On the other hand", he went on after a second, "when we really get started, you'd die, too, so it doesn't really make much of a difference. I figured you'd like to go down in a fight though."

"That's why you came here then?" the Slayer demanded to know, not sure if she should be annoyed by his audacity or frightened by how sure he was he'd win – after all, he had seen her fight before, had fought by her side many times when they still had been dating, and knew exactly how strong she was and what she could do.

"Exactly", Riley now let her know, giving her a small smile, "but I'm afraid it won't take long until you go down. You have no idea of the powers I wield now, Buffy."

With those words, he casually raised one hand again; moments later, lightning crackled between his fingers, and only the fast reflexes of the Slayer prevented her from ending up quite thoroughly toasted, the blonde diving out of the way a mere second before the bolt of lightning hit the sidewalk, making the concrete sizzle audibly and prompting Pat to jump back as well.

"At least you don't need those taser guns anymore now to do that", Buffy dryly stated while the sidewalk slowly stopped sizzling, a clearly visible scorch mark left where the lightning had hit it; next to her, Pat let out a low growl, no one of the others surprised when a second later, her hands flamed up with an audible _whoomp. _

Without bothering to say anything, she mimicked Riley's movement by bringing up one hand as well; a moment later, it had clenched into a fist and she punched the air in front of her, this resulting in a surprisingly large ball of fire which shot towards the soldier, too fast to give him the chance to duck, the fire hitting him right in the chest. Letting out a yelp which could be a sound of surprise or of pain, he somehow managed to stay on his horse anyway, clutching the reins tightly; for a few moments, the flames flickered and spread over his clothes, then he grit his teeth and tightened his grip on the reins even further, the fire vanishing a second later, leaving the distinct smell of burned flesh behind.

Despite his tries to hide it, it was clear that at least momentarily, Riley was in considerable pain; he grit his teeth and let out a low groan before he stopped himself, realizing though that the four in front of him had heard it quite clearly when Buffy raised an eyebrow, then smiled slightly, a sardonic and even a bit mean smile he only had seen on her face when they had been fighting together before he had left town and her.

"Would you look at that", she then spoke up, raising her weapon slightly to emphasize her next words while the burn wounds on his chest and stomach slowly healed and vanished, "so you can still get hurt. I wonder if you'd be able to heal it when I cut off your head?"

In response, the soldier just stared at her for a few moments – before he, to the surprise of everyone, pressed out "This isn't over", then kicked his horse to make it turn around and rode off, the other three horsemen following suit, leaving the Slayer and her friends behind, all four of them staring after the retreating figures.

* * *

><p>"Did they really just… flee?" Buffy asked after almost a full minute of stunned silence; behind her, Giles nodded, appearing just as surprised as the Slayer, something which clearly showed through his voice when he relied. "Apparently, they did. So maybe, we have more time than I thought."<p>

Curious, Buffy turned to look at him, the look on her face being enough to make him speak on, Willow and Pat listening eagerly to his words as well.

"Clearly, Riley was hurt by the fire", he explained, briefly wondering why no one else had figured this out so far, then shrugging it off – it was the main part of his job here after all to figure such stuff out when no one else did. "It healed quite quickly, which is unfortunate, but I think that you made a good point, Buffy – cut off his head probably would be mortal for him, no matter if he's a horseman now or not."

"Well, that's good news, right?" the Slayer gave back after a moment, even though she didn't like the thought of having to cut off Riley's head, "that means we can stop him and so, stop the apocalypse. With just three of them, it won't work, right?"

"I don't know", Giles had to admit, "but it's very possible that you're right about this, as well. Maybe, they'll vanish once he is gone, if he is the one who summoned them here, or maybe, his… defeat will make it possible to defeat them as well."

"Yeah, that makes sense", Willow agreed, making the rest look at her, "but maybe, we shouldn't take too much time with defeating him anyway, I mean, remember that whole mess with Amy? She didn't have all her powers at first, either, but it grew pretty quick, and if it'll be the same with Riley, he'll end up immortal sooner or later, and then we're in really big trouble."

"I assume we'll still have some time until then, though", Giles gave back, to the obvious relief of Buffy, "at least, we should have enough time to research the basic facts about this new situation. To be honest, I'm quite surprised he hasn't achieved full immortality and all the powers coming with his new state yet."

"Maybe he messed up the summoning or something", Pat shrugged, "not that I really care, as long as this means that we'll be able to get rid of him and his buddies."

To this, Giles nodded his agreement, then suggested that they all should get back inside and hit the books; knowing that this was highly necessary and that maybe, they only had gained a small times span to find a solution, the others merely nodded as well, then returned into the Watcher's house with him, making themselves comfortable in the living room while Giles found the right books and handed them out, the room falling silent as all four of them concentrated on their new task.


	13. Chapter 13

"I think I found something", Willow broke the silence half an hour later, surprising everyone – normally, they didn't get any results so quickly, the redhead smiling brightly at the other three while she held up the book she had been going through.

"Kinda quick, I know", she added, "but it's a spell which might be useful. Buffy, remember the time that huge troll guy appeared and went on a rampage because of a, well, a botched spell?"

"Of course", the Slayer gave back, grimacing as she thought of how she had fought said troll, a rather large, strong and, to her great dismay back then, stinky creature who had given her quite the fight before she had managed to knock him out.

"What about him?" she then added, curious; smirking, Willow gestured at the book again, sounding slightly triumphant when she replied. "Well, the spell I did back then sent him to another dimension, remember? It only worked for one person or object though, so I thought I'd look for one which can be used on a group, and I found this."

With those words, she put the book down on the table so the others could look; the only one who could make much sense of the printed words though was Giles, Buffy and Pat just frowning at the page, clearly having no idea what it was supposed to tell them.

"That spell can send them all to another dimension, all four at once", the witch explained when she noticed that her girlfriend and best friend had no clue what she had tried to point out to them, "it's a bit difficult, even for me, and kinda risky, but I should be able to pull it off. Just in case Riley does gain immortality before we can find him and defeat him, or in case his three buddies don't vanish once he's gone."

"Sounds like a plan, even though I don't like the words bit difficult and kinda risky, but, well, what can we do", the demon was the first one to reply, giving her girlfriend a strict look afterwards, making both Buffy and Giles smile as she once more demonstrated her high level of protectiveness. "If it gives you a nosebleed again, no magic afterwards for a week!"

"I hope it won't", the witch grimaced in reply, "but if it does, then I'll be too drained to do much magic afterwards anyway, so you don't need to worry."

"That doesn't exactly calm me down", Pat muttered in reply, didn't make any other comments though, the rest thus figuring that she had agreed to the redhead's words, prompting Giles to ask her if she'd need anything from the Magic Box to perform the spell.

"Yes", Willow confirmed after consulting the book once more, "not much, but important stuff… and it's expensive, so Anya will probably insist on being paid for it again." With those words, she gave her girlfriend an apologetic glance; sighing, the demon pulled out her wallet in reply and peered into it, then looked up at the others again, sounding slightly miffed when she replied. "I should have enough cash on me to pay her, but you'd think that the fact we'll use that stuff to save the world should make her give it to us for free."

"It's Anya", the Slayer shrugged in reply, "I doubt she'd give us anything for free even if it was about saving her life, or Xander's. That's just how she is." In response, Pat just let out another sigh and shook her head; with a cute little "Awww", Willow reached over in reply and ruffled her hair, making the taller woman give her an incredulous look while Buffy let out a snort as she tried to hold back her laughter while Giles struggled to keep the smile off his face, clearing his throat a moment later to regain the attention of the group.

"I suggest we go to the shop right now", he stated, not really surprising anyone with his words, "so we are prepared, in case we need to act fast after all. And bring some weapons, just if they should attack us once more."

"You know, only Riley did", Buffy thoughtfully gave back while she got up from her seat and put on her coat, then made sure that it was hiding the sword properly, Pat doing the same a moment later, "the others just sat there on their horses and watched."

"Maybe they're the real deal, and it was some kind of test for him", Willow suggested, shrugging when the others looked at her curiously, obviously wondering where that thought had come from. "It would make sense, wouldn't it?" she demanded to know, shrugging once more, "I mean, he is the new guy among them, right? If I was part of such an, well, um, ancient group, I'd make sure that the new one is up to the job, too. Or maybe they aren't even happy about him replacing the traditional War."

"In that case, the spell he used to summon them must have been quite powerful", Giles pointed out in reply, "or else, they would have killed him the moment they appeared. Maybe they are bound to his will."

"He seems more and more like a jackass", Pat informed the others in reply to this, not very helpfully, but clearly having the need to say this; Buffy just let out a sigh as an answer, then nodded towards the door, her voice sounding surprisingly steady when she spoke up. "Jackass or not, he's threatening the whole world, so we better get moving."

The only answer she received from the others was a quick nod while Willow and Giles came to their feet; together, the four of them left the house, heading towards the Magic Box a minute later, none of them saying it aloud, but all of them hoping that they'd get there without being attacked once more and that the store would have everything Willow would need to perform the spell.

* * *

><p>To their relief, they made it to the Magic Box without anyone trying to stop them; Anya didn't seem all too surprised to see them, managed to surprise them though when she offered quite the big discount on the items Willow would need for the spell, raising an eyebrow when she saw the genuine stunned expressions the four were displaying in response to her offer.<p>

"What?" she then innocently asked while Pat dug out her wallet and started to count out the right amount, "you guys are going to save the world, again, so, my shop will go on which will mean I will be able to have customers and make money!"

"That grand gesture would have been much grander if you hadn't said that", Willow pointed out as an answer, making the ex-demon shrug before she started finding the items the witch would need for the spell, all of them soon neatly stacked on the counter in front of her.

"Do you have to make a powder of all that stuff again?" Pat wanted to know, eying the ingredients curiously; to her surprise, Willow shook her head, then gestured at the back room of the Magic Box, the rest listening with great interest when she replied. "I'll have to make a potion, which I hope won't turn into soup, as my potions tend to do, and, I know you won't like this part, before doing the spell, I'll have to sprinkle it on them."

"I don't like this part", the demon gave back, unsurprisingly, "do you need to do that? Or can someone else do it?"

"You mean, can you and me do it", Buffy clarified, smirking, her smirk widening when immediately, the taller woman nodded; to her relief, Willow mimicked her a second later, giving her a calming glance afterwards, adding to the reassurance by reaching out and placing a tender hand on her lover's arm.

"You and Buffy can do it, it's no problem", she let the taller woman know, "I'll just do the spell then. Just be careful, alright?"

"You know I always am", Pat gave back, the sight of Willow raising an eyebrow being enough of an answer, the demon having the grace to blush before she spoke on. "Okay, that was a lie, I'm not, but I will be this time."

"You better be", Giles found it necessary to add, "reckless actions might result in a spill of the potion, and that would ruin our plan."

"Wait wait wait", Willow threw in before Pat could come up with a reply, "plan? I thought this was just some kind of, I dunno, backup solution in case killing Riley wouldn't work?"

"It started out that way", Buffy admitted, "but by now, I think it's the best plan we have. I mean, killing Riley isn't an all too thrilling thought for me, no matter what he did, so…"

"I can do that", Pat shrugged, raising her hands when Buffy shot her a sour look. "Just suggesting."

"You can do that in case something doesn't go according to plan", the Slayer let her know, "but right now, the plan is sprinkle them and make them go poof."

"Very well put", Giles commented, giving the witch a calming smile when he saw how uneasy she had gotten by now. "Don't worry", he added, "I'm sure you are more than powerful enough to perform the spell. And if it works the way it is supposed to, it will solve all our troubles about those horsemen within seconds."

"Well, yes", Willow had to admit, "but I preferred being the backup plan. You know I don't like it to be the big gun!"

"Well, you'll have to be this time", Anya quipped, making the redhead look at her, "or else, the world might end, and that would be bad!"

"Again", Buffy found it necessary to add, earning a sour look from Willow; then, the witch sighed as she realized that they didn't leave her much of a choice and nodded, a glum look on her face.

"Fine, I'll be your big gun", she mumbled, managing to smile weakly when Pat put an arm around her and proudly declared "That's my girl!", making the rest of the group smile as well.

"Alright", the Slayer then stated, "you go and mix the potion then, Willow… And once it's done, we'll go, find my ex, and send him to another dimension. And here I thought this day would be dull."

* * *

><p>Half an hour later, the Magic Box had fallen surprisingly quiet; after some persuasion, Anya had locked the door and had put up the sign which let the world outside know that they were closed, making sure no one would disturb them and thus break the incredibly high concentration Willow would need to prepare the potion.<p>

This was exactly what she had been busy with during the last twenty minutes; the only person she'd allowed to stay in the back room with her was, not surprisingly, her girlfriend, Buffy, Giles and Anya sitting in the store's main room and pretending to read books while they waited for the witch to get done, not daring to speak to each other – not after how Willow had made it quite clear that she'd need absolute silence.

With great care, she now added a few more drops of one of the more expensive – and sensitive – ingredients to the mix she already had started; behind her, the demon stood leaning against the wall, her arms crossed over her chest, her gaze focused on the pot the witch was using for the potion, holding back both the urge to smoke and to tap her feet, not wanting to disturb the smaller woman.

Holding her breath, Willow put the small jar aside, then picked up another one; she added a few more drops, then watched how the mixture turned from the muddy brown colour it had been before to a lighter grey, nodding to herself a moment later.

"Looks good", she then spoke for the first time since she had started working on the potion, "it has the right colour… For now. After I said the words to activate it, it should turn blue."

"Go ahead then", Pat urged her on, "I'm sure you did everything right, it'll work just fine. Go ahead, do it."

After another deep breath, the redhead nodded, then looked at the small pot again; she took another second to concentrate, then started mumbling the few Latin words needed to turn the potion from a mere mix of ingredients into a mixture of powerful magic, holding her breath right after she had said the final word. For a few seconds, nothing happened; just when disappointment started to settle in though, accompanied by thoughts of failure and about how her potions just _never_ worked out right, something was happening with the mixture, almost invisible tiny bubbles forming on its surface at first, then bigger ones, within ten seconds looking as if it was boiling.

"Um", Pat started behind her when smoke started to rise from the pot another ten seconds later, "is it supposed to do that…?"

"I'm not sure", Willow gave back, eying the pot with slight concern, and taking a step back from it, just to be sure; the boiling and bubbling increased further for another minute, then slowly, to the relief of both the witch and the demon, decreased again, smoke still rising from the pot even when the boiling finally had stopped fully.

"Whew", Pat stated as soon as she could be sure that the thing wouldn't go back to bubbling noisily, "for a moment there, I thought it'd explode. Did it work?"

"I think so", Willow proudly smiled, carefully moving closer to the pot again and peering inside it, her heart performing an excited jump when she saw that the potion had become brightly blue, just as it had been supposed to.

"It's got the right colour, at least", she added, making the demon move up to her and look at it as well, "I guess we'll only really know if it worked once we poured it on those guys and I said the spell."

"Well, if it doesn't, Buffy and I can still try to kick their asses", Pat shrugged in reply, clearly not all too upset by the thought of having to fight the horsemen of the apocalypse, "but I'm quite sure it'll work out just fine, you usually know what you're doing."

"I hope you're right", Willow sighed out in reply, eying the potion once more and wondering if it could be poured into the small flask she had readied for it already or if it still was too hot, "but it's good to know you believe in me so much."

"Of course I do", Pat smirked, taking a step closer to her so she could embrace her, "so far, all the spells you did worked out. Well, um, most of them, except for that one time when you made me burp fire."

Even though she had been quite distressed when this had happened, the redhead now giggled at the memory, making her girlfriend's smirk widen into a smile as well; afterwards, they shared a quick, but tender kiss, then Willow decided that finally, the potion had cooled down enough to be filled into the flask, and did just that, the couple leaving the backroom to join their friends again as soon as the pot had been emptied and the potion was ready to be taken with them.


	14. Chapter 14

"Alright", Buffy stated a short time later, once Willow had let them all know that the potion at least looked the way it should, "now we just have to figure out how to find our four friends on horseback… And how to get that stuff on them without endangering ourselves too much. Any ideas?"

"I actually have one", Xander quipped, raising his hand as if this was some sort of class and Buffy the teacher, "but I'm not sure if it'd work. Willow, is that potion thick and creamy, or is it like water?"

"Kinda like water", the witch gave back, wondering where this was leading, "why?"

"Well", the young man gave back, grinning boyishly at her, "remember my tenth birthday? The present you got me?"

"Yeah", the redhead reassured him, smiling slightly as she thought of the joy she had given her friend with said present, "I got you that Super Soaker water pistol thingy you wanted so much, I had to save my allowance for half a year so I'd be able to afford it…"

"That's quite the good idea", Buffy was the first one to realize what Xander was aiming at, "no, wait, it's actually an amazing idea. How far can you splash with this thing?"

"Ten meters, back when I got it", Xander proudly informed her, obviously happy about how much Buffy liked his idea, "could be that it's not as far now, I mean, the thing's kinda old by now, but as far as I know, it still works."

"We better test it with water to make sure it really does", Pat threw in, "and so we know how far its reach goes. But Buffy's right, that's an amazing idea."

"We should get moving then", Giles was the one to respond to her, already rising from his seat, "who knows how much time we still might have left. Xander, you won't need extra time to look for this super soaker thing, right?"

"No, I know where it is", the young man reassured him in reply, getting up from his chair as well; a second later, the rest followed suit, and together, they left the Magic Box, heading for Xander's apartment, the young man still smiling happily to himself, obviously more than glad that his idea had been met with such agreement and praise.

* * *

><p>"Okay, now I feel kind of ridiculous", Buffy stated half an hour later, the fact that her friends were holding back smirks and giggles not really helping with easing that feeling; frowning, she looked at herself in the mirror again, wondering if maybe, the horsemen would die from laughter once they'd seen her like this, looking all ready to fight, but carrying a large, brightly yellow, blue and red water pistol.<p>

"Maybe they'll laugh themselves to death when they see you like this", Anya now maybe tried to cheer her up or to add insult to the injury, something Buffy wasn't all too sure about, but didn't want to find out; she frowned at the ex-demon, then looked at Pat, the black haired woman immediately shaking her head, before the Slayer even had had the chance to say something. "No way I'll take that thing from you. I'd probably mess up and not hit them anyway, fucked up depth perception, remember?"

With those words, she gestured at her eye patch, both Buffy and her ignoring it when next to her, Willow muttered "Language", the Slayer just frowning at her friend and giving her a strict look, clearly not buying her excuse.

"Your depth perception's fine enough when you use a crossbow", she then pointed out, "and, come on, please? I'm the Slayer, I'm supposed to be scary and frighten my enemies, but with this thing, I look ridiculous!"

"Well, I'm a demon", Pat countered, clearly choosing to ignore the quite good point Buffy had made about her crossbow use, "I'm supposed to even scarier than you."

"You two are such babies!" Willow now threw in, before the blonde could come up with an answer, a mixture of amusement and exasperation in her voice, "before you keep wasting time with that, give me the thing and I'll soak them."

"Thank you", Giles sighed while immediately, Buffy almost thrust the Super Soaker into the witch's hand, giving her a grateful smile; shaking her head to herself, Willow clutched the water pistol – or water gun, a description which probably was more fitting due to the thing's size – to her chest, avoiding it to look at herself in the mirror as well though, well aware of how ridiculous she had to look now.

"Now that this has been settled", the Watcher stated, pointedly looking away from the redhead and ignoring the suspicious glance she was giving him, since she was quite sure that he still was fighting to hold back a smile, "we only need to figure out how to find them. Ideas?"

Silence filled the room in reply, Giles almost expecting to hear crickets chirp any moment; then, Buffy cleared her throat and shrugged, giving Willow a curious look afterwards, the witch ignoring it when a smile tugged at the corners of her best friend's mouth.

"Would the demon locator spell work for them?" the Slayer wanted to know, successfully keeping herself from grinning, the urge to do so fading away anyway when the redhead pondered this for a moment, then shrugged, not giving Buffy the answer she had wanted to hear. "I'm not sure if they count as demons. I can try, but, well, the spell to send them away is quite difficult and tiring, so it might be better if I don't…"

"I second that", Pat immediately stated, giving her girlfriend a concerned look, "we don't need a repeat of what happened when you overdid yourself during the battle with devil-possessed Amy."

"The locator spell is out of question, then", Buffy agreed, to the demon's obvious relief, "but this puts us back to where we started. Any other ideas?"

Again, silence filled the room, to the obvious dismay of the Slayer; then, Pat cleared her throat, making everyone look at her, the demon shrugging when she noticed how full of expectation they all seemed to be now.

"We could just wander around and wait for them to find us", she then suggested, knowing that this wasn't the best plan ever, but figuring that it still was better than just standing around in Xander's apartment. "Riley was quite keen on showing off his new powers", she went on, "and he made it quite clear that he wants to take Buffy down, so…"

"That at least will make more sense than just sitting around here and waiting for something to happen", Buffy had to admit, saying out loud what the taller woman had been thinking, "so I guess it's worth a try. Maybe we'll come up with something better while we wander around."

"Yup", the demon agreed, gesturing at the door afterwards and asking if they should leave right now; Buffy nodded in reply, then gave Xander, Anya and Giles a strict look when they started to get up from their seats.

"You stay here", she then stated, ignoring the mixture of surprise and light annoyance which showed on her Watcher's face in reply, "we don't know how dangerous Riley and his new friends might be by now, and in case the spell doesn't work, there'll be lots of fighting. I want the three of you far away from the danger zone."

Even though Anya was the only one who clearly was relieved about this, neither Xander, nor Giles protested; the Watcher merely told them to be careful, and Xander found it necessary to remind Willow about how much that Super Soaker meant to him, the witch smiling at him and reassuring him that she'd take good care of it.

"Off we go then", Buffy stated as soon as all necessary words had been said, "we'll meet you guys here once we're done, alright?"

"Be careful", Giles repeated in reply, making the Slayer nod; she gave him a reassuring smile, then turned and left, Willow and Pat close behind her, the Brit watching them go with a slightly worried expression on his face, hoping that everything would work out as planned and that things would be fine.

* * *

><p>"I'm not so sure anymore if this was a good idea", Pat sighed out two hours later, throwing away yet another smoked up cigarette; they had been walking around all over Sunnydale with no avail so far, and she had smoked more during that time than usual, clearly losing her patience now anyway though. Next to her, Willow sighed as well and nodded; during the last two hours, she had received several funny looks, thanks to the fact that she was walking around with a Super Soaker filled with some weird blue liquid, but by now, she didn't notice them anymore, too distracted by her aching feet.<p>

"I still don't have any other idea though how to find them", Buffy mumbled, holding back the urge to sigh as well before she stopped walking and ran both hands through her hair, grimacing at how sweaty it felt. "But, well, if they'd intended to show up, they would have done so by now…"

"I guess so", Pat agreed, peering into her cigarette packet and, to the surprise of both Buffy and Willow, tucking it away again without lighting up another one, "but, as you said, not really any other ideas how to find them… So what do we do now?"

"We can't just go back to sitting around and waiting for something to happen", Buffy decided in reply, frowning as her mind ran wild, trying to come up with something. "There's got to be _something_ we can do…"

"Um", Willow started before the demon could reply anything, "maybe they decided to show up after all… Look."

With those words, she pointed down the street, at the four shapes which had appeared on the horizon; moments later, the sound of hoof beats reached the ears of the three women, both Buffy and Pat automatically clenching their fists as the horsemen approached.

"Willow, get ready", the Slayer mumbled at her best friend, making her nod; all at once, she didn't feel so ridiculous anymore as she raised the Super Soaker, her heart hammering up to her throat as she waited for them to get close enough. The few people who had been out on the street had enough common sense to get away, to the great relief of the three; taking in a deep breath, Buffy briefly felt like some sort of Western movie hero as she stood there, watching the horsemen come closer and closer, Riley in the lead again, the three others in line close behind him.

"It'd be easier if they'd all line up", Willow mumbled, her finger tightening on the trigger of the water pistol; she still had a few seconds to wonder if she'd managed to get them all, then they were finally close enough and she pulled the trigger, the potion shooting out of the water pistol's barrel in a thin, blue stream, soaking Riley and the two horsemen to his left and right, the one right behind him remaining untouched though. Hurriedly, the witch moved to the right as fast as she could, then pulled the trigger once more; she just had time to splash the fourth horseman as well, then had to dive out of the way quite daringly as the riders just kept rushing towards them, then past them, forcing Buffy and Pat to quickly jump out of the way as well.

"How rude", Buffy stated as the horsemen rode past them, then came to a stop; as one, they turned their horses around, Riley once more riding up to take the lead, smiling at the three, his smile fading slightly though when Willow started the spell, her voice loud enough to let him hear the words.

"Decided to try magic, huh", he stated, his gaze moving from the witch to Buffy. "Figured out that you wouldn't be strong enough? That why you soaked us with that gross blue stuff?"

"You're still smart, I see", the Slayer gave back, not sure what to expect – if Riley had met her here with his new buddies after all to fight her, he didn't look as if he'd attack any time soon, merely sitting on his horse, the other three behind him, appearing surprisingly calm as well.

From the corner of her eye, she could see that Pat was starting to move, closer to Willow, briefly making her wonder if the demon had seen something she had missed; then, Riley smiled lazily at her and raised his hand, lightning crackled between his fingers and Pat sped up, ending up in front of Willow just as the soldier sent his lightning at the witch, the brightly blue bolt hitting the demon instead, a low grunt coming from her as she went to her knees. For a second, the witch's voice faltered as she saw her girlfriend go down; to Buffy's relief, she kept going with the spell though, something which was made considerably easier by the fact that the demon was coming to her feet again, briefly making the Slayer wonder if Riley had held back with the power of the lightning, only intending to stop Willow, not wanting to kill her.

Snarling, the soldier glared at the black haired woman, clearly not happy about the fact that she had taken the hit which had been meant for Willow; before he could say anything though, or could try to use his lightning once more, the witch said the last words of the spell, strong wind coming up the moment the last syllable of the last word had been spoken.

"What did she do?" Riley demanded to know angrily as the wind picked up, making his robe and the ones of the three behind him flutter and flap; smirking, Buffy stood her ground while Willow, either unaffected by the spell or deciding to ignore any unpleasant side effects, her concern about her girlfriend too big to let her worry about herself.

"She'll send you somewhere where you can do no harm", Buffy now let the soldier know, smirking up at him. "Maybe the dimension you'll go to will be so crappy that they won't mind if you do your little Apocalypse thing there, but you won't do it here. Have a nice life there."

"You…!" Riley started in reply, raising his hand once more; before he could throw another lightning bolt at her though, the spell took effect fully, a large portal opening behind him and his three buddies. For the first time since he had appeared with them, the other horsemen showed some emotion as well, clearly uneasy when the wind increased and started pulling them towards the enlarging portal; they tried to move their horses away from it, but quickly realized that it was no good and that the wind simply was too strong, briefly relieving Buffy about the fact that it only affected them and not her or her friends.

"This won't be the end!" Riley shouted, raising his voice to be heard over the howling wind, his hoarse whinnying in dismay as it was dragged towards the portal, "I'll be back, and then you'll pay!"

"See you soon then", the Slayer replied, clearly unimpressed; he cursed once more in reply, then the portal sucked him up, along with his cronies, and he was gone, the wind dying down again, the three women grinning at each other, satisfied how well their plan had worked out after all.


	15. Chapter 15

Author's Note: And here we go with the last chapter of this story :) Even though I feel it's not one of my best, I hope you enjoyed it – the next one will be posted next Monday, was always :)

* * *

><p>To their great dismay, their joy only lasted for a few minutes, then unsettling growling and grumbling sounds came from the portal; the fact that the portal itself was still there and hadn't vanished by now, as it had been supposed to, according to the book in which Willow had found the spell, already was worrying the witch, but the noises which were coming from it now made her feel much more uneasy than the portal itself had.<p>

"That doesn't sound so good", Pat now stated, eying the portal with worry written all over her face, "I guess it's not supposed to do that…?"

"No", Willow gave back, taking a step back from the portal, just to be sure, "in fact, it should be gone by now… I think…"

"Something's coming through", Buffy finished for her, reaching beneath her coat and pulling out the sword she had brought, prompting Pat to do the same; the two exchanged a short glance, then moved to stand in front of Willow, the witch taking another step back in response, not wanting to get into the way of the two once the fighting would start.

That soon, a fight would happen was out of the question; by now, the growling sounds coming from the portal had grown much louder, and Willow doubted that it would close that before whatever was approaching it could come through, the redhead racking her brain as she tried to figure out how to close the portal before more creatures than the one which clearly was coming closer could get through it.

Before she could come up with a solution though, the creature coming from the other side finally had reached the portal, and squeezed through it; she could hear Buffy gulp at the sight of the thing, Pat next to her lowly mumbling "Oh crap", both of them staring up at the monster which was now standing in the middle of the street, sniffing before it glanced down, its gaze focusing on the two women.

Even though she had been the Slayer for a long time now, Buffy had to admit that she never had seen something like this; the monster was frighteningly huge, its cone-shaped head nearly touching the lamps of the streetlights, the black, scaly body covered with slime, the long and sharp claws on its hands, feet and on the tip of the strong looking, curved tail making it clear that this was a dangerous opponent. With a low growl, Pat raised her weapon, the noise she had let out clearly being enough to make the monster focus on her; it let out a terribly high shriek, then charged, the demon storming forward as well, raising her sword high over her head, her teeth grit and her good eye blazing brightly red.

To her great dismay, the monster wasn't just awfully big though, but awfully fast, as well; it easily avoided her attack, sidestepping the wild slash of the blade with a grace surprising for it's size, then countered with an attack of its own, its clawed arm swiping towards the demon with shocking speed, the large fist hitting her in the chest and sending her through the air until the wall of the building on the other side of the street stopped her harshly.

Crying out her girlfriend's name, Willow rushed to her side; clearly, the monster was keen on attacking her again as well, since it sped towards the black haired woman, another shriek coming from it – before it opened a mouth filled with alarmingly sharp teeth and spat a shockingly large glob of transparent, semi-liquid slime at the demon, just in time to let the stuff hit Willow the moment she reached her girlfriend.

Letting out a scream of shock and disgust, the redhead furiously started wiping at her face, glad when at least, the gross stuff came off quite quickly; she did her best to get it away from her eyes, nose and mouth at first, then removed it from the rest of her skin, flicking it from her fingers and on the ground before she focused on her girlfriend again, her heart clenching up when she heard the demon groan weakly.

"Sweetie", she tried to make Pat look at her, grasping her hand, her heart clenching up once more when she saw blood trickle down the taller woman's cheek, from a wound hidden beneath her long hair. Close to them, the monster let out another shriek, then opened its mouth once more, clearly intending to shower them with its disgusting slime once more; before it could so though, Buffy caught up to it and brought her sword around in an arch of deadly steel, smiling nastily when the blade bit into the creature's back.

Now growling again, the monster turned to look at the Slayer, swiping a large clawed hand at her moments later; somehow, she managed to dodge the attack, bringing her blade up again and stabbing the creature's arm, earning yet another pained shriek. Again with shocking speed, the monster reacted, this time too fast to give Buffy a chance to avoid the attack; the spiked tail of the creature caught her at the side and sent her flying, the sword clattering from her fingers as she landed on the sidewalk, struggling to come to her feet again while the monster approached her with fast, long strides, raising a clawed hand for the finishing blow.

In the last second, the Slayer managed to roll out of the way when the fist came down, and it hit the sidewalk instead of her, hard enough to split the concrete; snarling and growling, the monster whipped around to face her and brought its arm up once more, but before it could try to land another blow, a second, deeper grumble came up behind it, relief flooding Buffy when a second later, Pat landed on its back, in full demon form, the creature shrieking again in pain when the flames singed its scaly, slimy skin.

Clearly unimpressed by the painful sounds the monster was letting out, the demon let out another growl, tightening her grip on it with one hand while she brought the other one back, then smashed it against the monster's head, making sure to get the eye, the pained shrieks rising to an almost unbearable level when it was burned right out of the socket.

Somehow, despite the clearly terrible pain it was suffering, the monster managed to reach behind with both arms and grab the demon; for a few seconds, Pat tried to hold on anyway, then the long, sharp claws dug into her sides and, with a low grunt, she let go, ending up on the sidewalk right next to Buffy moments later when the creature flung her off its back. Glancing at her to make sure that she was okay, Buffy grabbed her sword and picked it up; the two fighters briefly nodded at each other, then simultaneously jumped up and launched themselves forward again, attacking the monster once more, more pain filled shrieks of the creature soon echoing through the otherwise quiet street again.

* * *

><p>Thanks to the creature's size, strength and speed, the fight took much longer than both Buffy and Pat had anticipated, and by the time the Slayer finally landed the blow which finished the disturbingly hard to kill monster off, they both had taken several wounds; the demon's high healing rate was enough to deal with some of them, but not all, as it became clear when she finally returned to her human form once the monster had fallen over and was dead, blood still seeping from several cuts, accompanied by sharp pain in her chest whenever she breathed, something which pointed out some cracked or even broken ribs.<p>

"Maybe you should demon out again, and try to heal that", Buffy advised, wiping blood off her face with the – quite torn – sleeve of her shirt; to her surprise, the taller woman shook her head, then managed a tiny smile, sounding tired when she replied. "No use to, even in that form, I can only heal so much… That thing cut me up quite bad, I'll need to wait an hour or two before the healing works again."

"Poor you", Willow showed some sympathy, finally daring to approach the two, now that the monster was dead; during the fight, it had ignored her fully, to her surprise and relief, focusing only on the demon and the Slayer, but still she hadn't been foolish enough to move closer, knowing she wouldn't stand a chance – especially not after how much the spell which had opened the portal had drained her.

"At least the portal closed again after that thing came through", Buffy now observed, giving the demon a concerned glance while Willow moved to support her, putting one arm around the taller woman's waist and prompting her to respond by putting hers around the witch's shoulders, "imagine fighting two or three of those at the same time."

"I'd rather not", Pat grimaced, then threw her girlfriend a worried look, concern equally showing through her voice when she spoke on. "What about that stuff it spat at you? Did it hurt you?"

"No, thank goodness", the redhead immediately reassured her, shivering at the rather unpleasant memory, "it was just really gross. I wonder what the point of it was."

"Maybe it's really helpful against whatever other creatures run around in the dimension where we sent Riley and his friends", Buffy shrugged, eying her best friend's face, satisfied to see that the only traces the slime had left were a few dried clumps of it the witch had missed when she had wiped her skin.

"Or maybe it was a sign of affection and the poor thing was just confused", Pat added, a small chuckle escaping her at the look she received from both Willow and Buffy for that, her laughter ending with a groan though when it brought up fresh pain in her chest.

"Okay", she then admitted, "seeing how it lashed out at us, it probably wasn't just confused. I'm just glad that stuff didn't hurt you."

"So am I", Willow reassured her while they slowly started walking, back to Xander's apartment where the rest was still waiting for them, "but I could have done without that stuff hitting me. It was really, really gross. Once we get home, I'll take an hour long shower or something."

"Understandable", Buffy agreed, then moved to support the demon as well; Pat gave her a small, but grateful smile in reply, then the three of them continued walking, leaving the corpse of the monster behind, all of them glad that once more, everything had been resolved and that the apocalypse had been stopped before it even had properly started.

* * *

><p>When they returned to the apartment, Giles immediately showed concern about the wounds of both Buffy and Pat, starting to fuss over Buffy, then over Pat despite the demon's repeated reassurance that she could heal them soon; finally, she just gave in to it and let him clean the cuts in her sides and on her back with a resigned expression on her face, Willow giving her calming smiles while she sat next to her, holding her hand tenderly.<p>

"So, the plan didn't work out quite as well as we were hoping", the Watcher stated the obvious while he got done with his work on the black haired woman's wounds, making it possible for her to button up her shirt again, even though it didn't cover much, being just as torn up as Buffy's.

"It worked out just fine until that horror movie reject decided to come through", Willow defended her spell, "and the book said nothing about this! If I had known it would happen, I would have taken precautions."

"It doesn't matter in the end, does it", Xander quipped before the Watcher could say anything, successfully keeping him from giving a reply which might have led to an argument, something nobody of the group wanted to happen now, "the horsemen are gone, the monster's dead and so, all is well. Right?"

"Right", Giles agreed after a moment of hesitation, to the obvious relief of everyone else; he smiled slightly while he took off his glasses and began to clean them, then another, unpleasant thought seemed to hit him, since his smile vanished and was replaced with a frown.

"Buffy", he then addressed the Slayer, "you left that dead monster just where you fought it?"

"Yes", the blonde gave back, speaking on hurriedly when the Watcher's eyes went wide. "Come on", she tried to convince the Brit that she hadn't done anything wrong, "this is Sunnydale! People here might be really good at the selective memory thing, but they are more or less used to such things lying around here by now. Plus, it was huge, and both Pat and me are hurt! You didn't expect us to drag that thing around right after fighting it, right?"

"You're probably right", Giles sighed after a moment, putting his glasses back on – solely for the purpose to give her a strict look over their rim, it seemed to Buffy moments later. "But I'll let this pass only this time, the next time something like this happens, you'll have to dispose of the corpse again!"

"Sure", Pat sighed, clearly annoyed by his behaviour, "the next time some huge beast comes along and tries to tear Buffy and me apart, we'll take two or three hours to bury it after we killed it. Now, I just want to go home though."

"Seconded", the Slayer agreed, not really surprising anyone; to her obvious relief, Giles nodded after a moment, then told her to take it easy for the rest of the night, making her nod as well before she got up from the couch, wincing slightly when this brought up fresh pain in her wounds. With some help from Willow, Pat got up from her seat as well, the Watcher doing the same a moment later; they all wished Xander and Anya a nice evening, then the small group left the apartment, giving the couple a chance to get some peace after the excitement of the last few days, something they all needed now.

* * *

><p>The moment they entered their apartment, Willow practically ordered her girlfriend to lie down on the couch and forbade her to get up before her healing abilities would have recharged enough to let her get rid of the cuts and cracked bones she still had to deal with; knowing that there was no use to argue when Willow had put on what she called her "Resolve Face", Pat did just that, lying down with a grimace and nodding when the witch asked her if she wanted something to drink and a painkiller.<p>

"One of the strong ones", she called after Willow as the redhead made her way into the bathroom; it didn't take long until she came back with a glass of water and one of the small, white pills, frowning at the sight of her girlfriend lying on the couch with a cigarette in her mouth, the smoke slowly curling towards the ceiling.

"Are you sure it's a good idea to smoke while you're still hurt?" she wanted to know while she handed both the glass and the pill to the taller woman; shrugging, Pat put the cigarette into the ashtray, then gulped the painkiller down, grimacing again since the fact that she had to sit up slightly to do so brought up pain in her chest again.

"I'll put it out if I start to feel dizzy or something", she then promised, lying back down again, holding back a groan – she hated to admit that she was in pain, always had and probably always would, but to her great dismay, Willow saw through her little act at once and gave her a scolding look, even wriggling a finger at her to underline her point when she spoke up. "Now, I know you don't like it to admit that you're in pain, because that'd mess up your Action Gal image or something, but… you know you can admit such things to me, right?"

"…yeah", the demon had to admit after a moment, figuring that Willow did have a point – they were a couple after all, and if she couldn't let her know about her pain, something about their relationship surely wouldn't be right.

"Honestly, I hope that painkiller kicks in quickly", she thus mumbled, smiling slightly when in response, the redhead sat down next to her and started to caress her hair soothingly, "and I have no idea how Buffy went on fighting. I mean, I did heal quite a lot while we were still in the middle of the battle, until the healing overloaded and gave up, but she doesn't have that advantage…"

"She's the Slayer", Willow shrugged in reply, "she's supposed to be able to fight on, even with drastic wounds. I bet she was glad you were there though, it surely made the fight easier for her."

"Yeah, I don't wanna imagine fighting that thing alone", the demon grimaced, taking another drag from her cigarette before she put it out, speaking on after blowing a cloud of blue smoke towards the ceiling. "It was hard enough to finish it together with Buffy, and, as you said, she's the frickin' Slayer."

"Frickin'", Willow giggled in reply, making the taller woman raise an eyebrow, a smile appearing on her face as well though when the redhead spoke on and gave her the reason for her amusement. "My constant nagging about your potty mouth finally shows some effect, huh?"

"Seems to", Pat smirked, momentarily glad as she finally felt the painkiller kick in, the pain in her chest slowly dulling to a bearable level, "even though you're not nagging. Nagging is annoying, and you're never annoying."

"You only say that because you're in love with me", the witch smiled, her smile widening when immediately, the demon nodded, sitting up so she could pull the smaller woman into a tender embrace.

"Head over heels", she then replied, her voice going down to a low murmur as she continued, a familiar sparkle entering her eye. "And once I can demon out again and heal those pesky cracked ribs, I'd like to show you just how much I love you…"

"I can't wait", Willow smirked in reply, then leaned in for a kiss, a wish her loved one gladly fulfilled; afterwards, they just cuddled on the couch in comfortable silence, enjoying each other's company and the fact that once more, danger had been averted and that at least for a while, they'd have some peace in their lives again.

End.


End file.
